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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




Ej^po^e of Vice an(l drinjE. 




e/^TVi XHKJs^Ss 



CAY FRENCH CAPITOL 



Translated Expressly for Richard K. Fox^ 



PUBLISHED BY 

RICHiRD K. FOX, PROPRIETOR OF THE POLICE GAZETTE 

FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK 




"LIFE OF JAKE KILEAIN," WILL BE FUBLISHED SHORTLY. 



o o o o o ooocoobooooooooooo ooooo ooooooooooo 

Literature that EYerybody SbouU Read, 

Glimpses of Gotham; or, New York by Daylight and After Dark. 

Man Traps of New York. A Full Expose of the Metropolitan Swindler. 

New York by Day and Night. A Continuation of Glimpses of Gotham. 

New York Tombs ; its Secrets, Romances, Crimes and Mysteries. 

Mysteries of New York Unveiled. One of the most exciting books ever pub- 
lished. 

Paris by Gaslight. The Gay Life of the Gayest City in the World. 

Paris Inside Out ; or, Joe Potts on the Loose. A vivid story of Parisian life. 

Secrets of the Stage; or, The Mysteries of the Play-House Unveiled. 

Great Artists of the American Stage. Portraits of the Actors and Actresses of 
America. 

Tam-s Brothers, the Celebrated Outlaw Brothers. Their Lives and Adventures. 

Billy Leroy, the Colorado Bandit. The King of American Highwaymen. 

Mysteries of Mormonism. A Full Expose ot its Hidden Crimes. 

Lives of the Poisoners. The Most Fascinating Book of the Year. 

Mabille Unmasked; or, The Wickedest Place in the World. 

Folly's Queens. Women whose Loves Ruled the World. 

Footlight Favorites. Portraits of the Leading American and European Actresses. 

Suicide's Cranks; or. The Curiosities of Self-Murder. Showing the origin of 
suicide. 

Coney Island Frolics. How New York's Gay Girls and Jolly Boys Enjoy Them- 
selves by the Sea. 

Paris Unveiled. A complete expose of the gay French capital. 

Historic Crimes, bting a complete narrative of Stgrtling Crimes. 



The American Athlete. A Treatise on the Principles and Rules of Training. 
Champions of the American Prize Ring. Complete History and Portraits of all the 

American Heavy Weights. 
Life of Tug Wilson, champion pugilist of England. 
Life of Ed. Hanlan, America s Champion Oarsman. 
Bettino- Man's Guide; or, How to. Invest in Auction and Mutual Pools and Com 

binations. 
Life of John L. Sullivan. Ex-champion of America. 



Any of the above superbly illustrated books mailed to your address on 
receipt of 25 CENTS. Address 

RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher, 

Franklin Square, New York. 




IN LOVE WITH THE PKETTT WAITEESS. 



PARIS UNVEILED 



OR AN 



EXPOSE OF VICE M CRIME 



IN THE 



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BY A 



X^^ CELEBRATED FRENCH DETpQ[E. 

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Traislated Expressly for Richard K. Fox. 



PUBLISHED BY 

RICHARD K. FOX, PROPRIETOR OF THE POLICE GAZETTE, 

[FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by 
EICHAED K. FOX, 

Publisher of the Police Gazette, 

NEW YORK, 

In the Ofl&ce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PARIS UNVEILED. 

A STARTLING EXPOSE BY M. G.'' MACE. EX-CHIEF OF DETECTIVES OF THE FRENCH 
CAPITAL, OF THE VICES OF THE MODERN SODOM. 



(EXPRESSLY TRANSLATED FOR RICHARD K. FOX.) 



CHAPTER THE FIEST. 



A MORNING WITH THE PREFECT OF POLICE. 



At No. 7 Boulevard du Palais is one of the entrances 
of the City Hall. 

Bo far as outward appearances go, this is by no 
means one of the principal doors of the building. It is, 
none the less, considerably the most important. 

As everybody knows the Prefect of Police, wandering 
oflicial who has no permanent headquarters, tempo- 
raril.v (that is to say, continuously) resides at that 
address. For the entrance on the Boulevard du Palais, 
whith is scarcely to be distinguished from those of his 
neighbors, gives access to the private domicile as well 
as to the public offices of the Prefect. 



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CHIEFS IN COtTNCrL. 

These latter, which ought to be within easy reach of 
persons having business vnVa. them, are perched up 
aloft at an altitude which very few of the Mansards of 
old Paris have so far attained. No less than seventy- 
nine steps of staircase separate them from the ground 
floor. 



The vestibule is ornamented with a large pier glass, 
which permits visitors to scrutinize themselves from 
head to foot, and thus be more at ease about their ap- 
pearance than their consciences. 

The day we introduce the reader to this interesting 
institution is remarkable for the bustle and animation 
which prevail there. 

A Prefect who has lost his "pull" with the powers 
that be is surrendering his office and a luckier suc- 
cessor is taking it off his hands. The moving out of 
the one and the moving in of the other are taking place 
simultaneously. 

The incoming Prefect finds it difficult to conceal hla 
satisfaction, and overflows with the very laudable am- 
bition to excel his predecessor. 

The outgoing Prefect takes away with him, a lot of 
unpleasant memories, some concern for his future, and 
a genuine regret to be divorced from his authority. 

Everybody knows that Prefects of Police are supplied 
gratis with houseroom, furniture, heat, light, house 
linen, crockery and everything necessary for a private 
establishment. In the headquarters, the private apart- 
ments are situated on the second floor. On the day we 
introduce our reader to them, they were cluttered up 
by a lot of zealous subordinates overseen and directed 
by an officer with the rank of "brigadier." 

Some were sweeping carpets, others washing win- 
dows, others shaking curtains. Brooms, cloths and 
feather dusters were all hard at work. 

"Had I better send the kitchen things to be re- 
tinned ?" inquired the brigadier of the official in charge. 

"Not at all. All they need is a good rubbing up. 
The tins have oiitlasted the Prefect. Perhaps they'll 
do the same by his successor." 

' 'How about the bedding V 

"!' 11 take charge of it." > 

■V\Tiile this sort of thing was going on in the main sa- 
loon, just behind the prefectoral sanctum, two men were 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



hard at work therein. They were the new Prefect and 
his nephew who served him in the capacity of private 
secretary. With praiseworthy industry they were both 
carefully taking note of the vast operations of the 
police department, daily threatened, as it is, constantly 
attacked in the rear, and still none the less always act- 
ing for the intelligent and laborious population of 
Paris, of which it is the protection in good as well as in 
evil times. 

It was 10 o'clock A. M. Opening the door of the pre- 
fectoral sanctum an usher announced: 

"The General Secretary." 

After a cordial handshaking (for he was an old per- 
sonal friend of the new Prefect) the two great function- 
aries began to converse. 



"I quite agree with you, and I will even go so far as 
to admit that 1 am not at all easy about some of oiir 
new men. To be frank, some of the memoranda in my 
possession are anything but encouraging. There are 
any nunaber of candidates, who are shoved forward by 
'influence,' who are by no means equal to the exigen- 
cies of active service." 

"Very well. We must depend on our own judgment 
instead of yielding to the pressure of interested par- 
ties. I decline to go in for a general beheading." 

"My view exactly." 

Here the door opened and the usher announced the 
arrival of the two Chiefs of the Division of General 
Control and of the Chief of the Municipal Police. 

"It is the hour for official reports," said the Prefect, 




THE FIGHT AT "MANILLA'S." 



"How do you get on with your overhauling of the 
personelle of the department ?" asked the Prefect. 

"Well, I've put in a good deal of hard work, and I must 
admit that the sterling qualities of the old staff have 
made a very strong impression on me. I really have 
been able to mark only ten names for dismissal." 

"Ten names? That is quite a number, isn't it? Our 
desire to introduce reform ought not to lead us to 
wholesale dismissals of men who do their duty. There 
are special agents who have come up from the bottom 
grades— men who, by dint of courage, prudence and 
professional skill, har© managed to rise to high rank— 
men who are of great value to the force. They have a 
right to feel themselves established in their positions. 
It is the best thing to help an employee carry out his 
work faithfully. That is why I say do your overhaul- 
ing with moderation and judgment." 



"and we will resume our conversation this evenins." 

The General Secretary made his exit and the different 
chiefs of the service were introduced. 

The Chief of the Second Division submitted to the Pre- 
fect for his signature a general order relating to haf'ks 
and cabs, and communicated sundry reports of dan- 
geroiis, objectionable ornnwholesomo establishments. 
He retired with instructions to exercise renewed dili- 
gence in dealing with all persons adulterating the 
necessities of life. 

The Controller-G«neral reported an inquest which had 
taken place on the body of a man arrested for an 
offense against public morals, who had committed 
suicide by hanging himself, with his siTspenders, in his 
cell at a police station. The responsibility for the a"t 
rested with a young police officer, who had failed to obey 
the rule requiring a constant inspection of prisoners. 



FAEIS UNVEILED. 



When the Controller-General retired, it was the turn 
of the Chief of the First Division. After submitting 
several reports to the Prefect, he requested permission 
to grant the attendance of an officer in plain clothes at 
a wedding which, so there was reason to believe, was to 
be the scene of an outbreak on the part of a cast-off 
mistress of the bridegroom. 

"Who asks for this concession ?" 

"Monsieur L , Counsellor of State. He marries 

Mile. T .'• 

"And who is the person whom they expect to be an- 
noyed by ?" 

"A married woman, separated from her husband. 
Monsieur L. has broken off with her a long time." 

"Well, we must prevent such a scandal. Is this sort 
of thing common ?" 

"Altogether too common." 

' 'Do you think the people who ask for such protection 
deserve it ?" 



raid on seventeen tramps in the Church of St. Germain 
TAuxerrois. 

Second Precinct.— Atrocious assault with a knife, 
made by a "lover" on one of the inmates of the house 
of ill-repute of the woman Greff in the Eue St. Foy. 

Third Precinct.— A child of five killed by being run 
over at six o'clock by a milkman's wagon in the Rue4u 
Temple. 

"Why is it," inquired the Prefect, "that milkmen 
and butchers are so addicted to reckless driving ? We 
must put an end to the practice." 

"All right," replied the Chief. Then he went on: 

Fourth Precinct.— Nothing. 

Fifth Precinct. -Nothing. 

"Two model pi'ecincts." 

Sixth Precinct.— A howl and riot among students over 
a lot of prostitutes, in the Rue Monsietir le Prince." 

"The usual student 'lark,' I suppose." 

Seventh Precinct.— A serious disturbance and fight in 




AN IlSrrEREUPTED WEDDING. 



"Not always. On the contrary, it has been applied for 
by men who have seduced and abandoned innocent 
young girls." 

"What— do you mean to say the department inter- 
feres to protect the marriages of men of that sort ?" 

"We have got to do so, in order to prevent, in some 
Instances, a serious breach of the peace. In this par- 
ticular case Monsieur L. is deserving of great sympa- 
thy, and nobody at all familiar with the facts of the 
case holds him in any way blameworthy." 

It was now the turn of the Chief of the Municipal 
Police, of whom the Prefect inquired: 

"How did Paris behave last night?" 

■'You shall judge for yourself, sir." 

Saying which he read the following report: 

First Precinct.— Attempted assassination of a chief 
cook in the Kue Valois by one of his dishwashers. A 



the Avenue Lowendall. Two soldiers and a civilian 
badly injured. The military authoi'ities notified. 

Eighth Precinct.— Two arrests for crimes against pub- 
lic decency, in the Cours La Reine. 

Ninth Precinct.— Three arrests of children on the 
Boulevard des Italiens for begging. 

Tenth Precinct.- Attempted suicide by a young wo- 
man from the Qn&y Lemappes. She threw herself in 
the canal and was rescued by two ofiBicers and taken to 
the St. Louis Hospital. 

"What was her motive ?" 

"Destitution." 

"Well, we must do something for her relief." 

"I have ordered a full inquiry to be made into her 
case, and to-morrow I shall allow her 100 francs." 

"I wouldn't wait till to-morrow. To poor wretches 
like her every day seems like a century." 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



"JiiBt as you say." 

Eleventh Precinct.— An unknown person broke the 
arm of Madame Capiton, wine merchant on the Eue 
du Faubourg du Temple. Dangerous wound. Motive 
supposed to be revenge. 

Twelfth Precinct.— A fish-woman in the Rue Dumesnil 
struck her janitress several serious blows on the head 
with a heavy candlestick because the latter prevented 
her from leaving without paying her rent. The culprit 
has been arrested. 

Thirteenth Precinct.— On the Boulevard de I'Hopital 
a wagoner arrested on the complaints of bystanders 
for cruelly beating his horses. On the Rue Jeanne 
d'Arc, two "lovers" arrested for fighting over a rag- 
picker fifteen years of age. One of them bit off the 
other's nose. 

Fourteenth Precinct.— A young woman dead on the 
Rue Daguerre of uterine hemorrhage— supposed to be 
a case of abortion. 




(^L 



"MANILLA." 

Fifteenth Precinct.— A corpse f oiind at the Bridge of 
Penelle — in the water over a month. 

Sixteenth Precinct.— Two safes broken open In the 
store of C. D. & Co., on the Rue de la Pompe, contain- 
ing a large amount in stock certificates and bank notes. 

Seventeenth Precinct.— Three midnight affrays on the 
Boulevard Pereire. Revolver shots exchanged. No 
arrests. 

Eighteenth Precinct.— Insigiiificant fire in a feed store 
on the Rue Marcadet. 

Nineteenth Precinct.— Desperate fight with knives be- 
tween Italian, German and French laborers on the Rue 
de Puebla. Two wounded at the hospital. Full report 
will be made later. 

"I suppose the Foreign Office will have to take notice 
of this as an international affair." 

Twentieth Pi-ecinct.— Burglary in a liquor saloon on 
the Rue Meuilmontant. The burglars, who have so far 
escaped arrest, carried off twenty-five boxes of cigars 
and several bottles of liquor. 

"You see," observed the Chief of MuniciiJal Police, 
"it has been quite a light night for us." 



"I don't agree with you," replied the Prefect. "In 
my judgment there were more than enough crimes of 
every nature— burglaries, affrays, riots, attempted 
murders, suicides and other offences. This sort of 
thing must be stopped, and we must prove that the 
Municipal Police is equal to its responsibiUties." 

"We do the best we can." 

"Again I don't agi-ee with you. Take the case of the 
two burglaries. What were the police of the Nine- 
teenth Precinct doing that they let them occur?" 

"The officers of the Nineteenth were engaged in 
another serious business, which is not mentioned in 
the general reports. I will explain to you shortly " 

"In any event I want to be kept informed of every 
detail of those two burglaries." 

"I will keep you posted, sir." 

"How many arrests have been made since this time 
yesterday ?" 

"During the last twenty-four hours one hundred and 
thirty-six persons have been locked up at headquarters 
—a little more than the daily average, which is one 
hundred and twenty. Of these one hundred and 
thirty-six arrests, fourteen were of prostitutes— regis- 
tered and otherwise. Two persons were taken into 
custody for insanity, and three lost children were 
taken charge of." 

"Have you any special reports ?" 

"Yes; I have two which merit your special attention. 
The first is the case of a young woman who was 
brought to the police station of the Place Saint-Sulpice 
by a former nurse, charged with being dressed in male 
attire." 

"This isn't Carnival week— so the act ranks as a mis- 
demeanor." 

"Not in this particular instance. Mile. Ida V , the 

young person in question, obtained a permit from 
your predecessor to wear male apparel." 

"A permit! On what grounds ?" 

"She has a decided blonde beard which makes her 
look like a young man. Moreover, she has the air and 
walk of a youth. Apart from these peculiarities, she is 
quite respectable and lives with her parents, who are 
house owners on the Rue Saint Dominique. She made 
application for the permit on the ground that she was 
exposed to indecent remarks and even ill-treatment 
when she went abroad in the garb of her own sex." 

"Was she held at the police station ?" 

"No. She was released on showing her permit." 

"Why did the former nurse prefer the complaint 
against her ?" 

"MaUce seems to have been the motive." 

"The ordinance of Prefect Dubois, dated November 
7, 1800, which permits, in certain cases, the wearing of 
the attire of one sex by a member of the other, pre- 
scribes that the person who carries such a permit shall 
not present himself or herself in such attire at any 
ball, theatre or other place of public resort. Do you 
know if Mile. V. complies with the prescription ?" 

"She onl.v goes to church. But it seems to me that a 
church is a place of public resort. If it be so decided, 
she must, of course, surrender her permit." 

The Prefect put his head on one side. 

"In matters of conscience I approve of the utmost 
liberality, and going to church is a religious act which 
ought to be fully honored and protected. On that 
ground I decide that Mile. V.'s permit shall not be with- 
drawn. What is the other special case ?" 

"It is that of a kept woman, who calls hei-self Man- 
illa, and who resides in a sumptuous apartment on the 
Avenue d'Eylan. At 2 o'clock A. M.— the precise hour 
of the burglaries which you commented on— officers, 
while passing the resiflence of this woman, heard loud 



PARTS UNVEILED. 



outcries, made in a female YOice, and two i)ietol shots, 
followed by the crash of broken glass. They tried, 
•without success, to enter the apartment, and one of 
them ran to notify his superior and the Commissary of 
Police, while the other remained at the door of the 
house, at which was a carriage and pair of horses. The 
officer could make nothing out of the driver, who was 
a German. In a few minutes the door opened wide 
enough to permit the exit of two young men, one of 
whom was verj' pale and leaned upon the other. Both 
of them got into the carriage, which dashed off in the 
direction of the Arc de Triomphe. escaping in spite of 
the officer. The next moment a body of police and a 
Commissary arrived on the scene, and succeeded in 
getting admission to the apartment. In repl.v to ques- 
tions, the woman Manilla and her servants told the 
following story: 

"A Brazilian and a Mexican had met in the apartment, 
and were playing red-and-black. In the course of the 
game a dispute arose between them, which ended in 
each throwing his cards in the other's face. Both of 
them were lovers of the woman Manilla, and the quar- 
rel over cards was, of coiirse, a mere pretext. The 
Brazilian made a dash at the Mexican with a dagger, 
which the latter barely escaped by ducking his head. 
Then the Mexican drew a revolver and fired twice. 
The first bullet went through a Venetian mix-ror, and 
the second lodged in the left shoulder of the Bra- 
zilian." 

"Was it a serious wound ?" 

"The Commissary of Police could. not ascertain, for 
the two men are reconciled and refuse to talii about the 
affair. The Brazilian is under twenty-one shears of age, 
and I have had him under observation for some time; 
at the urgent request of his mother, who is an im 
mensely wealthy woman and has made every effort to 
get him to cut loose from the influence of the woman 
Manilla. He threatens either to marry her or to blow 
his brains out." 

"Do you know much about the woman ?" 

"I have been informed that she keeps an album full 
of the portraits of her admirers, in which she keeps a 
record of all the money and jewelr.v she gets out of 
them. Most of them are foreigners— bvit I am further 
informed that she has an occasional visitor in the per- 
son of a very distinguished French public official." 

"You have been correctly informed, then," said the 
Prefect; "and, moreover, his portrait is to be found in 
her album with the others." 

The Chief of Municipal Police bit his lip. 

"You are evidently better posted than I am." 

"More than that," continued the Prefect, "at the last 
reception of the Minister of Foreign Afl"airs you shook 
the hand of this statesman in my presence." 

The Chief of Municipal Police could scarcely refrain 
from an exclamation. The statesman referred to was 
the last person in the world he suspected. 

"Have you anything else for me ?" 

"Yes— these four anonymous circulars— which are of 
a very revolutionary character." 

The Prefect unfolded one of the circulars. It was an 
ordinary sheet of paper, black, Avith the printed matter 
in red ink. At the foot, instead of a signature, was a 
design representing a human skull surmounted by a 
dagger. 

"It is an appeal to unemployed workingmen," said 
the chief, "and declares war to the knife against the 
middle classes. They were found posted last night in 
the Eleventh Precinct. On several occasions similar 
circulars, only executed by hand, have been found in 
the same precinct. It looks like an attempt to inflame 
workingmen against their employers. I have assigned 



special men to the work of detecting the persons who 
post these circulars." 

The Prefect smiled sardonically. 

"Take care the special men don't ti-ace these circulars 
too closely." 

""Why ?" queried the chief sharply. 

"Well, you know, when a theatrical manager finds 
business growing bad, he is apt to revive an old piece 
which is pretty sure to draw well for a week or two." 

"Then you evidently don't believe in any such con- 
spiracy." 

"I'll believe in it— the moment you arrest anybody 
caught in the act of posting these circulars. And even 
then I might be inclined to suspect the culprit was 
some poor devil into whose hands somebody had slip- 
ped twenty cents and a paste brush, with a batch of 
these bills." 

"Don't you think you're pushing your incredulity a 
little too far ?" 

"That's my conviction," replied the Prefect firmly. 
"In examining the pigeon-holes in which these so- 
called seditious circulars are filed away, and comparing 
them with the reports of the police agents on the sub- 
j ect, I couldn't help being struck by their strong family 
resemblance." 

Before the disgusted chief could reply to his super- 
ior's sarcasm, the doorkeepers announced a second 
visit from the Chief of the Second Division. 

"Tell him to come in." 

"The warden at headquarters," said the chief, "has 
informed me that he has in his custody a party ar- 
rested on suspicion of robbery from the person, who 
says he knows 5'ou and desires to see you at once. Ha 
refuses, however, to give his name and address." 

"I think," said the Chief of Municipal Police, "that 
he is one of a gang of pickpockets, three of whom we 
already collared. None of them would give his name 
or address. When they are arrested they always pre- 
tend that they have just arrived in Paris and have no 
baggage. Their 'pals' take the hint when they don't 
show up at night and make an immediate bolt of it. 
The three were arrested separately— one at the stores 
of the Bon Marche, another at the Louvre and the 
third at the Printemps." 

"The man I speak of was arrested at the Printemps.'" 

"Then you may be sure he was one of that gang." 

The doorkeeper, at this point, made a reappearance 
and handed the Prefect a letter. 

"The female who brought this saj'S it is most 
urgent." 

"Tell her to come in." 

As the other officers were about to retire the Prefect, 
who had hastily run through the letter, exclaimed : 

"Wait a moment, gentlemen. I shall, in all proba- 
bilitj', need to profit by your advice and experience. 

The lady who has brought this letter is Madame X , 

whose husband is an officer of the Legion of Honor 
and a prominent government official. He has been 
missing since yesterday." 

Madame X entered, weeping bitterly, and dropped 

into an easy chair. 

"Calm yourself, ms^ good lady," said the Prefect, 
courteously. "We shall soon find your husband for 
ji'ou. Don't imagine for a moment that anything seri- 
ous has happened to him." 

The poor woman sobbed as if her heart would break. 

"He was always so precise— so exact in everything he 
ever did. And he did not have a single bad habit. No! 
He had enemies who were jealous of him, and he has 
been murdered! " 

"What makes you think so ? " 

"He has received two or three letters sneering at his 



10 



PAEIS UNVEILED. 



republicaniem. My good husband! He is deadi I've 
had a presentiment of it—" 

"Did he go yesterday to his office ?" 

' 'Yes. I ascertained that this morning without letting 
them know that he had not been home all night." 

"Was he iu good health ?" 

"Diiring the last three months he has complained a 
good deal of vertigo." 

"Kindly let us have a full description of him, if yoii 
please." 

"He is about 50 years of age, middling stout. His hair 
is cut short, and is brown, sprinkled with gray. So is 
his beard, which he wears full. He wore a blacli suit 
and a high hat. His linen is marked with his initials. 
Here, too, is the best photograph taken of him. It's an 
excellent likeness." 

"My secretary will conduct you to a waiting-room, 
in which I hope news of your husband will find you in 
lees than an hour." 

After assuring himself that his fair visitor was out of 
earshot, the Prefect signed an order which was imme- 
diately served on the Chief of Detectives, demanding 
the presence of the unknown man suspected of being a 
pickpocket. 

In a very few minutes the Chief of Detectives was 
ushered in, with his prisoner. 

The Prefect was stupefied— and very naturally. In the 
downcast culprit he immediately recognized the miss- 
ing Monsieur X. 

An embarrassing silence prevailed for a few minutes. 

The Prefect broke it. 

"So this is you, is it ?" 

The prisoner put his handkerchief to his eyes. "I 
am sorrj' to say it is. I must protest against the way I 
have been treated." 

"How?" 

"Your men have handled me as roughly as if I were a 
professional thief." 

"I don't wonder— considering that, according to your 
own statement, the pocketbook found u])on 3'0ii was 
not your property. And when to that is added the fact 
that you had three handkerchiefs, each marked with 
ditferent initials, which you also confessed were not 
yours, I am not surprised that they collared you as a 
professional." 

"The pocketbook and the handkerchief were either 
thrust into my overcoat pocket by I'eal thieves who 
wanted to escape pursuit, or they were placed there by 
some blackmailer." 

"How IS it you did not make that statement or some- 
thing like it to the Commissary of Police ?" 

"Because I was afraid of being laughed at." 

"Please explain what yoii were doing so far awaj' 
from your dei^artment office as the Printemps stores ?" 

"I was in search of a certain toilet article which my 
wife had been eager to have for a long time, and which 
I wanted to surprise her with." 

"You had nothing on your person to identify you— 
not even a visiting card." 

■ 'I never carry one ?" 

"How was it you were not wearing your Legion of 
Honor ribbon ?" 

"I forgot, when I changed my clothes in the naorning, 
to transfer the rosette." 

The Prefect was studioiis for awhile. Then he turned 
to the Chief of Detectives, who had been listening with 
a face of stolid immobility. 

"Will you vouch for your men ?" 

"1 will; as much as I woiild for myself. They are in- 
capable of making a mistake, and they know that the 
penalty of a false arrest is their instant dismissal. 
They never take a pickpocket into custody until they 



have watched him patiently and got him dead to 
rights. In this instance, the articles were found on the 
man's person." 

"But he says, very plausibly, that they could have 
been put in his pocket by somebody else." 

"That is absurd— and I'll prove it to you. I did not 
interrupt him while he was speaking, because I wanted 
to give him all the rope he wanted to hang himself 
with. He says his is a case of mistaken identity, and 
that he was in search of a toilet article for his wife. 
Well, it must be a very rare and a very expensive arti- 
cle, seeing that at a regulajvhour for a certain number 
of days every week for no less than three months he 
has been a regular visitor at the Printemps stores. Per- 
haps he was waiting for the end of the season to get it 
at a reduction." 

M. X' — turned ghastly pale. A trembling of the lips 
betrayed his intense nervous agitation. 

"Go on," said the Prefect, dryly. 

"The man can't deny that he has been in the habit, 
for three months, of freciuenting certain stores patron- 
ized by ladies— especially those where the customers 
are young and i^retty. In his admiration for beauty he 
gets a little rash— and determines to satisfy himself 
that the charms so profuse around him are genuine 
flesh and blood. In his— well, scientific — researches his 
hands are apt to trip themselves up once in a while in a 
pocket with a purse inside it." 

"Nol Nol I am no pickpocket," exclaimed M. X . 

who from being pale had changed to purple. 

"Ahl I comprehend!" said the Prefect, frowning 
darkly. Then turning to the craven prisoner: 

"You are not a pickpocket— but you are something a 
good deal viler and more contemptible. I think we un- 
derstand eacji other perfectly." 

Monsieur X. understood only too well. He hung his 
head and kept sUencc. 

The Prefect went on; 

"I'oiir wife has applied to me for assistance in find- 
ing yoii. She is in one of our office waiting-rooms. 
My secretary will take .you to her. Exi^lain to her as 
you please j'our absence from home. I would not, if I 
were you, be too frank, however. I will assume the 
responsibilitj' of discharging you as a case of false ar- 
rest. You can go." 

Crimson with chagrin and covered with shame, the 
government official followed the private secretai-y out 
of the office. 

"Hereafter," said the Prefect to the Chief of Detec- 
tives, when they were alone, "caution your men against 
arresting erotic cranks of the public position of M. 
X . Such arrests only give rise to scandal." 

"It is often very difficult," said the Chief of Detec- 
tives, "to tell the difference between a pickpocket and 
one of these 'feelers.' In time, men like BI. X bo- 
come real pickpockets. They take to stealing hand- 
kerchiefs and other souvenirs of the women they pur- 
svTe. Often they seize a handkerchief whicli contains a 
pocket-book or a roll of money. Like pickpockets, tlic 
erotic cranks hang around the large dry goods stcu'es 
and crowd against the women. It is quite natural, 
therefore, for my men to confound them with the pro- 
fessional pickpockets, like whom they act precisely. 
There, is, however, one marked difference between 
these fellows and pickpockets. The pickpocket is 
almost always accompanied by one or two pals. The 
erotic crank, on the other hand, always goes alone. 

If M. X had disclosed his real name at the station 

house. I should have released him at once and notified 
you immediately." 

"I am not sorry he passed a night in the cells," said 
the Prefect. "It maj' cure him." 




GARKOTING THEIR VICTIM. 



w 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



■'Never. I'll guarantee that if I put my men on 
him it wouldn't Ije a month before he was collared 
again. I coiild tell you of a dozen instances of crea- 
tures like him who, after being arrested several times, 
and realizing that detectiA-es were after them, have had 
the audacity to summon a uniformed offleer and give 
the detectives into custody as thieves and black- 
mailers. No! There is no cure for such animals." 

The Chief of Detectives had scarcely taken his leave 
before the private secretary returned with a smile on 
his face. 

"I have never seen anything so absurd as the meet- 
ing of M. X with his wife, under the circumstances. 

She was as overjoj^ed as he wag cast down, and no 
praise was too enthusiastic to bestow on the police. 
They went out arm-in-arm." 

Just as the Prefect was leaving his of&ce to go to 
lunch he received the following report: 

Municipal Police, i 

Depaetment of Ikquikies, J- 

Pakis, , . ) 



REPORT. 

Case of M. X (with photograph). 

I have succeeded in accomplishing the task I assumed 
an hour ago. 

M. X died last night, of cerebral apoplex.v, in a 

registered house of ill fame. As there were no papers 
on his person, the Commissary of Police sent the body 
to the morgue, marked "Unknown." 

1 return the photograph supplied by Madame X 

Officer (illegible signature). 

Under a large "Approved," written on the margin of 
the report, the Chief of the Municipal Police had added 
the following: 

"Shall we notifu the widow ?" 

The Prefect added this endorsement: 

Unnecessary. M. X must have had a double. He is 

alive and in good health. Twenty minutes ago he quitted 
my office arm-in-arm with his wife. 



— ^0<>— — * — *4V* 



CHAPTER II. 



THE DIVES OF PARIS. 



"Let us enter." 

So speaks the Chief of Detectives to the Prefect of 
Police, who is accomioanied by his nephew, who ie, 
also, his secretary. They were standing outside "The 
Red House" (Le Cliateau Rouge), an edifice which, once 
the palace of a king's mistress, is now one of the vilest 
resorts of the French capital. 

In the large apartment which they entered was a bar, 
but no chairs or seats of any kind. The frequenters of 
the place are too restless to care about remaining in 
any one position for any length of time. Another fea- 
ture of the den was its gloom. 

Nothing eatable is sold on the premises, but the 
waiters areiSftvays ready to accommodate customers 
who bring their meals with the loan of cracked plates, 
bent forks and knives whose points have been caref ullj' 
broken oft'. This latter precaution is taken to avoid 
the consequences of a free fight, in which the partici- 
pants often carve what they call "flesh-and-blood but- 
ton-holes" out of their adversaries. 

The place is run by an agent or general manager, the 
proprietor onl.r dropping in for the daj^'s receipts, 
which are always considerable. 

It is one of the pi'ivileges of this den that the man 
who gfets drunk in it may relieve his stomach of its 
contents whenever and wherever he pleases in the 
saloon. It is easy to detect, bj' several senses, that 
wine is the prevailing beverage. On an average in 
good times as many as a liundred casks a month have 
been sold. Trade is dull now-a-days, and a cask every 
twenty-four hours is the height of business. 

It is another of the privileges of the place that every- 
body pays strictly in advance. Orders for drinks are 
not filled tmtil the money has been "put up" in every 



instance. "Give and take." This golden rule prevents 
differences of opinion. 

"How do they sell their wine?" 

"From 60 to 80 centimes [30 to 40 cents] a litre [some 
thing more than a quart]." 

Jitst as the Bohemians of literature and art have 
selected the beer saloons presided over by barmaids 
for their resorts, so has The Red House become the 
rendezvous of what may be called "Tough-dom." It is 
the refuge of some hundred "crooks" whose pro- 
fessions even the police are unable to classify or define. 

"Although the crowd is pretty thick, it seems to be 
peaceable enough." 

"Oh, rows are frequent. We have dropped in, how- 
ever, during a calm. Let us take a few notes." 

"I fancy I can detect under their rags, in some of 
these people, quite an air of distinction." 

"You are quite right. Some of them are well edu- 
cated. Others have wasted fortunes in drini? and 
gambling." 

'What will you have, gentlemen?" inquired the 
waiter. 

"Nothin/; at all," replied the j'oung secretary. 

"Nothiy ; eh? Well, that's easily got," replied the 
waiter wun sullen familiarity. 

"Bring us some brandied cherries," interposed the 
Chief of Detectives, remarking, as the waiter vanished, 
"It's a good deal safer to order something and thus 
avoid being noticed. Luckily we are not obliged to 
swallow what we order." 

The waiter brought the cherries, but held them aloof 
from the table. 

"Give him forty-five centimes," said the Chief of 
Detectives. 



12 



PAtilS UNVEILED. 



"I forgot," said the youns secretary, "that a fellow 
pays in advance here." 

The words were hardly OTit of his month before a 
dispute commenced at a neigliborins; table. 

The secretary eagerly approached the disputants. 
He found two disguised detectives, known as Humming- 
Bird and Porthos, at table with a pair of drunkards 
To ingratiate themselves with their neighbors, the de- 
tectives had treated all hands, and in return were re- 
galed by the drunkards with full particulars of their 
transportation to Cayenne after the Commune. 

The man swore that when it was noon in Paris, it was 
midnight in Cayenne. 

The woman furiously averred that when it was mid- 
night in Paris it was 6 o'clock in the morning at Cay- 
enne. 

This difference of opinion would have led to a gen- 
eral row if the detectives had not persuaded both of 
the disputants that each was in the right. 

••Do you see that fellow at the third right-hand table, 
reading a letter to a drunken woman ? He is an ex- 
lawyer's clerk who has gone to the dogs through strong 
drink. He hangs roimd pot-houses and, for a drink, 
writes begging letters and bogus letters of ref- 
erence for customers. Every time he is arrested for 
being drunk his pockets are full of well-written 
notes, addressed to prominent people, recom 
mending meritorious cases of necessity to their notice. 
The next table is occupied by two prostitutes smoking 
cigarettes, and a couple of sneaking blackguards who 
secretly sell obscene pictures and transparent cards on 
the boulevards. Still further on are a lot of the 
'barkers' or hawkers, who sell newspapers and pam- 
phlets with loud cries of 'Last night's murder!' or 
'Frightful scandal— full and minute particulars!' 
Mixed in with them are street singers, street musicians 
and other bohemians of the lowest class." 

"Hooray for the deputy!" bawled a number of 
voices. 

"What do they mean ?" inquired the Prefect. "Are 
there any members of the National Legislature here ?" 

"The 'deputy' is a returned convict from Noumea. 
Watch him, now that he has taken his seat." 

The new-comer cleared his throat and shouted: 

"Fellow citizens! There are strangers among us! 
Let us bid them welcome. We are all brothers here. 
Let us drink the wine of good fellowship and frater- 
nity, citizens. Waiter! Two quarts and glasses. I am 
a, returned exile, strangers. I had the honor, once 
upon a time, to know Rochefort and take him by the 
hand. Here's to him!" 

"That chap doesn't seem to pay in advance," whis- 
pered the voung secretai-y. 

"No: he is arinking at our expense. We'll have to 
make that good. And if we stay here any longer, he'll 
put us to even more expense." 

"He's a pretty jovial sort of a convict from Noumea, 
isn't he?" 

"That's only a gag. He never set his foot there in 
his life. Its a good gag to play on the 'crooks,' that's 
all." 

Just at this moment a man entered with a guitar. 

"Let's getout of this," remarked the Chief of Detec- 
tives, after paying for the last round. "They have got 
on to us and in another minute we shall be swamped 
by an invasion of 'fakirs' all ready for a drink at our 
expense." 

So. to the ill-concealed disappointment of the gentle- 
man with the guitar, they left The Red House. 

At a sign from his chief, Porthos put himself at the 
head of the little procession and the other detective, 
Humming-bird, was about to bring up the rear, when 



a drunkard grabbed him b.y the arm. 

"S'shay!" stuttered this person, 'Isn't it all right, 
eh! You look to me as if you wash a little queer, eh?" 

"Oh, we're all right," laughed Humming-bird. 

At the entrance to the Kue de Trois Portes, the young 
secretary made a sudden move. "Here's a poor, ragged 
woman lying stretched out on the sidewalk. She looks 
as if she might be dead." 

"Dead drimk," responded the Chief of Detectives, 
cynicall.v. "Even animal life seems suspended. Do 
you detect a very loathsome smell? It is a combination 
of all the drinks and perfumes popular among women 
of her kind. She is still young— hardly thirty years 
old." Between her thick lips gleamed fine white teeth. 
She must have been pretty at one time. 

"How disgusting she looks, all plastered over with 
mud." 

"She is what they call a 'sidewalker.' " 

"What's that ?" 

"It is the slang name for a class of prostitutes whose 
only home is the scaffolding round some old house 
that is being pulled down, or some new one that is be- 
ing built. They carry on their trade in the open air 
under bridges, in the trenches of the fortifications, in 
back alleys, where there are no janitors. Once a week, 
regularly, this one fetches up in the station-house. She 
comes lawfully b.y her drunkenness. Her mother died 
in hospital of delirium tremens. Her father commit- 
ted suicide while drank. She herself has almost got to 
the end ot her rope. Some day, coming out of a pot- 
house, she'll drop dead in the street, and then she'll be 
on show, for the last time, at the Morgue. Although 
known to thousands, nobody will claim her body, and 
she will be turned over to the medical school tor dis- 
section." 

"What was her parents' business ?" 

"Her mother's trade could not be classified. Her 
father was a perambulating 'fence,' who iised to ped- 
dle stolen goods from door to door." 

By this time they had arrived at the Red Flag, a gin- 
mill mvich patronized by rag-pickers and fellows who 
gather uiJ the butts of cigars and cigarettes. 

The tourists entered a long, narrow den full of human 
beings seated at tables, on which were displayed the 
strong-smelling results of their industry. The "boss" 
butt hunter was examining the crop and laying out 
the routes for the next day. In a note-book he kept a 
memoranda of events aboiit to come off to which a 
crowd would be most likely attracted, such as rich 
marriages, important funerals, church festivals, etc.— 
all of them requiring b.y usuage or law the casting 
away of a cigar or a cigarette by the smoker attending 
them. The time and liours of work at this trade vary, 
according to the plate, and the lowest receipts of anj 
butt-hunte!' never falls below two francs (forty cents). 

The proceeds of the day's work are spread out on a 
long board and sold, both at wholesale and retail. 

The popular beverage, here, seemed to be coffee, 
sold at 10 centimes (5 cents) a cup, which was much en- 
joyed by the butt hunters in .^n atmosphere so dense 
and pungent that the visitors could scarcely breathe. 

Leading out of the barroom was a filthy apartment, 
covered with straw, that was apparently but seldom 
renewed, on which reclined a number of men, sepa- 
rated from each other by ropes, just like horses in 
stalls. 

"Let us get out of this, for heaven's sake," protested 
the young secretary. "My eyes smart as if they had 
been rubbed with onions and red pepper." 

The fetid air of the street seemed actuall.y refreshing 
after the stench and suffocation of "The Red Flag." 




A YOUNG THIEF. 



PARIS un VEILED. 



"And now,"" obBerved the Chief of Detectives, "we 
are in the Kue des Anglais." 

This narrow alley is a sort of passage for women of 
the town and their "lovers." 

"That little shed you see there," continued the Chief 
of Detectives," is a sort of refuge for the naale and 
female drunkards who hang around here. The officers 
on post here make regular raids on it every night, and 
capture any number of strumpets who have laid down 
there to sleep off their potations." 

"How do you explain the fact that this alley is such a 
favorite resort of drunkards ?" inquired the Prefect. 
"Why are there more here than elsewhere ?" 

"They all come from the bucket-shop right in front 
-of us, at No. 4. It is famous among tramps and vaga- 
bonds as "Old Father Spectacles'!' It was opened some 
tliirty years ago bj' a man named Lefevre, who always 
wore an immense pair of copper goggles. He usually 
carried them on his forehead, and used to cause his 
customers a gi-eat deal of amusement by incessantly 
asking his wife what had become of them. It was this 
old rascal who first oi'namented the place with the ob- 
scene cai'toous which you will see in a moment, and 
which have been added to from time to time by all his 
successors. 

"The present proprietor of this delectable den only 
pays 750 francs rent ($150). His expenses are very small, 
and he sells an immense quantity of brandy and other 
alcoliolic drinks. Wine is not by any means his lead- 
ing article, and yet he sells about six or seven barrels 
every month. The place consists of two long and nar- 
row saloons, separated by a wooden partition. For 
some reason or another the fui'ther one is known as 
'The Senate.' " 

While the Chief of Detectives was dispensing this 
information, the door of "Father Spectacles' " estab- 
lieliirient was kept btisy. Every instant it opened to 
admit fresh customers, most of whom wei-e much un- 
der the weather already. 

Standing before it the visitors heard, every time it 
swung open, a rumbling noise, which at times swelled 
into a roar like the breakers on a beach. 

"Let us enter," said the Chief of Detectives. 

The Prefect and his nephew followed. 

The first inspiration was a deadly shock to their 
lungs, so vitiated and so suifocative was the atmos- 
phere of the groggery. 

It was a hideous mixture of evaporative alcohol, sour 
wine and the belchings of overloaded human stomachs, 
some of which, to poison the air still more, had vom- 
ited their contents. This stench of drunkenness was 
further intensified by the dense fumes of ground up 
cigar butts, rescued from the gutters and smoked in 
reeking pipes. 

The crowd was so great that the three visitors had to 
ply their elbows vigoroiisly to get in. After a sharp 
struggle they forced their way to the door in the 
wooden partition which separated the two saloons 
from each other. 

Looking dimly through a fog of pungent tobacco 
smoke, they descried a long zinc-covered bar, behind 
which were enthroned the proprietor and his wife. 
Between the bar and the wall the space, narrow and 
confined, was filled by a villainous mob of wretches, 
all of them drunk, all of them shouting and yelling, 
and all of them gesticulating. Behind this hedge of 
carousing topers was a long bench fastened to the wall 
iinder two or three rows of wine barrels, and on the 
Joench were five or sis hideous old hags in rags, which 
scarcely so much as pretended to conceal their filthy, 
shrunken and emaciated nakedness. Some were seated 
nodding their heads with the automatic rhythm and 



regularit.y of intoxication. Others sprawled at full 
length, dead drunk. All of them were snoring, and 
one or two of them every moment or two gave out a 
hoarse and horrible gi-oan. 

The further extremity of the bench— which was 
reserved exclusively for feminine customers— between 
two of the most villainous-looking beldames, sat a girl 
with fresh, rosy cheeks, who still retained youth and 
comeliness, and who was fighting against the drowsi- 
ness which was rapidly getting the best of her. 

Sitting there, sad-eyed and melancholy, with a 
pensive, far-away expression in her pretty eyes, she 
might have been taken for some faithful daiighter or 
sister who sought to rescue a relative from this hell — 
or, perhaps, even more plaiisible, some abandoned 
sweetheart searching for her betrayer. 

It wag impossible to view without emotion this mere 
child lost in a crowd of alcoholized brute beasts. 

It was a fleeting hallucination, however, for, on ap- 
proaching her, every respiration that came fiwm be- 
tween her rosy lips was loaded with the mingled odors 
of wine, brandy and absinthe. 

Her eyes were fixed dreamily on the door. 

Was she waiting for anybody ? 

Yes— she was waiting for everybody. As each new- 
comer entered she saluted him with a vague smile in 
hopes of being treated to a fresh "turn" of the yellow 
liquids which gleamed behind the bar. 

If she was spoken to she would tiT to fix her drunken 
glance on the speaker. Her lips would attempt a 
meaning smile, and with a husky voice, so sodden with 
liquor as to be hardly audible, she would murmur: 

"You're v-v-ery good. Buy me a drink of brandy I" 

It was not with desire to drum up customers that 
this streetwalker haunted the den of Father Spectacles. 
That biisinesB she could carry on with more profit else- 
where. Her desire was a mere yearning to get drunk. 
That accomplished she would drop off to sleep, pillow- 
ing her head on the body of another drunkard and 
snore in absolute oblivion until the hour arrived for 
closing up the dive. 

The saloon at the further end of the place called, as 
before stated, "The Senate," contained tables almost 
touching each other, at which customers, male and 
female, were packed like herrings in a barrel. 

They made room, however, for the new comers, and 
a ghastly smile of welcome went round the unwhole- 
some place. 

The uproar was something indescribable. Some 
were shouting, some were screaming, some were re- 
citing obscene verses. Five or six indecent chonises 
were being sung at the same time. Language of in- 
credible foulness was roared from one to another, 
shrieks of drunken laughter and the crash of broken 
glass were incessant. 

To overhear one's neighbor, one had to bend his ear 
right to his mouth. The solitary waiter, sweating like 
a runaway horse, was in evil hiimor. Woe to the man 
who stood in his way. A thrust with the shoulder or a 
dig with the elbow would send him staggering against 
the wall, often to drop with a thud ou the stomach of 
one of the snoring harridans on the bench. 

Everything was paid for in advance, and all drinks 
cost 15 centimes (1)4 cents). 

The decorations of this dive are its most remarkable 
characteristic— for the paintings on the walls, which 
were singularly well executed, were filthy and obscene 
beyond description. Human beings, male and female, 
were represented, life size, engaged in performances 
and operations which are never mentioned even among 
savages. 

Eows are frequent in "The Senate," but they are 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



treated as mere family quarrels, and the police seldom 
interfere. K the outbreak assumes a formidable 
character, the waiter, who is a stalwart and desperate 
youug fellow, "bounces" the combatants into the alley, 
wliere a ring obligingly forms, and the dispute is 
fought out until the disputants are either exhausted or 
reconciled, upon which they return to the dive and go 
to drinking again. 

As in The Red House, it was necessary to call for 
drinks at Father Spectacles'. The Chief of Detectives 
ordered a round of cherry brandy. Seated by the 
j'-oung secretary was a toothless beldame, who looked 
with covetous eyes on the contents of his glass. 

"Aren't you going to treat?" she inquired, with a 
hideous grin. 

"If you want this you are welcome to it," said the 
young secretary. 

"Bah!" she exclaimed; "I never touch sweets. Call 
for a big glass of white brandy." 

The waiter brought a tumbler full of highwine, 
which she emptied at a single gulp. 

"There," she growled; "that's what I want every 
time. Extract of vitriol's mother's milk compared 
with it. It stings all the way down." 

At this point a man with a violin made his appear- 
ance and began to tune up. At the first squeak of his 
instrument loud cries uprose. 

"Shut up!" roared a voice from the end of the 
saloon. 

"Stow your old fiddle," bawled a second. 

"We don't want any of your gut-scraping ?" yelled a 
third. 

The waiter struck one of the tables a blow which set 
all the glasses jingling. 

"Silence !" he bellowed— and silence followed. 

The fiddler ran his bow over the Strings and com- 
menced a ballad of which he said he had written both 
the words and the music. 

He began : 

"Softer and whiter than ermine !" 

"There's no vei-min here !" yelled a drunken rough, 

"Put him out !" howled another. 

"Softer and whiter than ermine " 

"To h ^1' with j'our d d vermin," shouted the 

first voice. 

'Gentlemen, give a poor devil some show !" pro- 
tested the musician. "I've got to raise the price of my 
night's lodging." 



"Take this for your night's lodging !"— and a heavy 
tumbler whizzed past the fiddler's head and smashed 
to pieces on the wall. One fragment, rebounding, 
shivered a pane of glass in the door of the wooden 
partition. 

The drunken mob rose to its feet like one man. Each 
grabbed a glass or a bottle. The waiter rushed forward 
to seize the offender, but he clutched tight hold of his 
table and could not be moved. 

In a minute there were two excited, yelling, shriek- 
ing, frantic factions, one siding with the waiter, the 
other with the fellow who had hurled the tumbler. 

"Bounce him!" ci'ied one crowd. 

"Let him alone!" shouted the other. 

In the hurricane of uproar which followed, the three 
visitors, not without great difficulty, elbowed their 
way into the open air and safety, 

"The proprietors of these dens," observed the Chief 
of Detectives, "enjoy excellent reputations and are 
abundantly well fixed. They get rich in trafficking in 
the vices and passions of humanity. One of them has 
just purchased a magnificent furnished apartment 
house in the Bue St. Denis. Another has a splendid 
country seat. A third takes a regular European tour 
every summer. When they retire from trade they give 
the cut direct to everybody they used to know and deal 
with. They will become men of influence, philanthro- 
pists, municipal counsellors, or even officers of the 
civil government. They will preach virtue and give 
rewards to good children. When they die they will be 
lamented as public benefactors." 

"Where do the drunkards we have seen take their 
meals ?" 

"Most of them do without eating regularly. They 
live on an exclusive diet of alcohol. Whenever they 
find the pangs of hunger grow intolerable they go to 
some cheap restaurant, of which there are plenty. One 
of the most curious is that on the Bue de Breore, near 
the Place Maubert. It is at the end of a dii'ty, blind 
alley, and looks more like a coal cellar than a restau- 
rant. There are fifteen tables in it and it is always 
crowded. 

"Besides the drunkards of the neighborhood, it is 
patronized by beggars, peddlers, blind men, dog deal- 
ers, butt hunters, rag pickers. Thieves and prosti- 
tutes are not admitted. From the soup to the dessert, 
all dishes are five cents, and, incredible as the state- 
ment may ajjpear, both the viands and the drinks are 
sound, abundant and palatable." 



CHAPTER in. 



•HIGH" AND "LOW" CROOKS. 



"Among the reports of the Municipal Police received 
yesterday in your absence," said the secretary next 
morning to the Prefect, "is this maniiscript sewed to- 
gether with pink silk. It relates to the woman who 
calls herself Manilla." 

"Read it," said the Prefect. 

"The real name of this female is Eosella Fraisen. 
She is called Manilla because of her habit of smoking 
cheroots. She was born in Prague, in Bohemia. 

"Her mother was of German origin and kept a small 
shop hard by the Theatre Royal, Berlin. Her father 
was a leading actor who used to be a great favorite in 
BusBia. She hardly so much as saw her father twice 



in her life. Brought up by strangers, she never showed 
any feelings of affection or regard for her family. 

"Well educated, intelligent and always smiling, so 
as to disclose her two rows of pearly teeth, she was in 
early youth quite a celebrated beauty. 

"In person, she is tall and well built, though appa- 
rently slender, and has very agreeable and fascinating 
manners. One of her peculiarities is the enormous 
quantity of silky brown hair which covers her bead. 
Her eyes, which are hazel, are very bright and expres- 
sive, and her voice is sweet and musical. 

"To all appearances she is full of gayety and quite 
childish in her ways, although she conceals a tigerish 



PARIS UN- VEILED. 



dieposition under a very charming exterior. 

•'Takinfi to a life of prostitution at eighteen, at thirty 
years of age she still preserves enough of her beauty 
and fascination to turn the heads of men old enough 
and experienced enough to be on their guard. 

"Her admirers can be divided into two classes— those 
who are blindly devoted to her and with whom she 
does what she jdeases, and regular rounders who 
"work" her for money. 

"After throwing away two fortunes in cards, she sud- 
denly took it into her head to go upon the stage and 
' appeared in a burlescxue at the Vaudeville, when she 
made a hit by her shape alone. 

"A rich German banker who used to be on very in- 
timate terms with her mother, took her off the stage 
and made her register a vow never to appear again be- 
hind the footlights. She has faithfully kept her word 
and never since reappeared in public. 

"She lives at a tremendous rate and spends money 
recklessly. At the present moment she is immensely 
rich. Recently a Kussian prince gave her a diamond 
necklace worth three hundred thousand francs 
($60,000). 

"Her carriage, which is drawn by two superb black 
horses, is one of the most remarkable in Paris, and 
she rides down the Bois de Boulogne as if she were an 
empress. 

"Her apartments are simply superb. Such a collec- 
tion of rugs and tapestries and bric-a-brac doesn't ex- 
ist elsewhere in the city. 

"Her private boudoir is lined with padded pink silk 
and heavily perfumed. The hangings are of black 
velvet, embroidered in gold and silver with tropical 
plants and flowers and birds of gorgeous plumage. 
The curtains are of the same material, looped up with 
chains of solid silver. 

"The boudoir is always in a sort of dim twilight, 
which at nightfall is faintly illuminated by a small 
silver watch-lamp. But at a moment's notice this twi- 
light is dispersed by the rays of a magic lantern which 
shines through a panel of ground glass. A negress 
manages the lantern, which in an instant pours a con- 
stantly changing flood of.light and color into the room. 
Pure white, pale yellow, green, blue, pink and blood 
red are the various tints which rapidly succeed each 
other. 

"There is only one picture in the boudoir— a portrait 
of Manilla, painted by a daring young artist of the 
most realistic school. It was rejected by the Salon on 
account of its- wonderful naturalism. 

"The negress who manipulates the lantern is a mag- 
nificent specimen of her race. Her head is simply 
hideous, with its thick, woolly covering. Her nose is 
broad and thick; her lips swollen and- bleached; her 
teeth protruding and flat. Manilla found her on a re- 
cent trip to the United States, and persuaded her to 
accompany her to Paris. 

"She wears moccasins of snakeskin, and her only 
garment is a waistband of black silk, with a heavy gold 
fringe, which is knotted at her hips and ends just at 
the knees. She has never been known to utter a word 
to any of her mistress' visitors. 

"It is one of the whims of Manilla that on her black 
satin garters she wears, worked in diamonds, the date 
of the month and the name of the day of the week. 

"For each one of her numerous lovers she scents 
herself with a special perfume, and is even suspected 
of drenching her garments with a mysterious fluid 
which has a strange influence on all who come within 
range of it. 

"Among her favored admirers is a young American 
who calls himself Antonio, (Note— This Antonio was 



Antonio Terry, the rich young Cuban who died re- 
cently and left a fortune to his English wife.— Editor). 
This young man, who is not twenty years old, has on 
several occasions urged Manilla to go to England with 
him and get married. Luckily for him, she refuses mar- 
riage, and prefers her present condition of personal 
liberty." 

' 'So far so good-and a very pretty little romance it is. " 
observed the Chief of Detectives when the Prefect's 
secretary had finished his reading. "But now for the 
facts: Manilla is a married woman who is separated 
from her husband. At Berlin she was the cause of a 
duel, which was afterward followed by a suicide, 
on account of which the German police gave her orders 
to quit the country. 

"She took refuge in Russia, where she was in due 
time hunted out by the authorities. 

"She next turned up in London and made a sensation 
in Hyde Park, through which she used to parade her- 
self in a black carriage drawn by a magnificent pair of 
white horses, the manes, tails and hoofs of which were 
stained red. Her residence in Paris has not been a long 
one— but it has been quite long enough to enable her 
to do a great deal of mischief. 

"Mark her," said the Prefect shortly, "for an im- 
mediate warning to leave the country. And now for 
your promised lecture on pickpockets." 

"Professional pickpockets," said the Chief of Detec- 
tives, "are carefvilly educated in their early youth. 
After a series of theoretical lessons they are promoted, 
when sufiiciently advanced, to practice on a dummy 
figure, which is dressed in men's clothes and covered 
with sleigh-bells. It is hung from the ceiling by a 
wire in such a manner that the smallest contact with 
it sets the bells ringing furiously. 

"As soon as a youngster can snatch a purse or a 
pocketbook from the person of the dummy without 
making the bells ring, he is pronounced fit to go out 
and 'work' the crowds on the streets. 

"The most severe test of the young thief's skill is to 
require that he shall 'snatch' a watch chain from the 
dummy wlthoiit setting the bells ringing." 

"By the way," interrupted the Prefect; "have you 
got any news of the burglai-y reported night before 
last at Passy ?" 

"Yes, sir; my men have just made an arrest in con- 
nection with it." 

"Good. Give me the particulars." 

"Last night, at the Theatre Folies, Bergeres, a woman 
of the tO'UTi, who is known as Gloria and who liveB on 
the Rue Mosnier, was accosted by a well-dressed man 
with a very forbidding countenance. With an accent 
half French and half German he inquired of her if she 
was of easy virtue, and when she replied in the affirm- 
ative wanted to know if she was duly registered. The 
girl again said 'yes,' and he treated her to supper at 
the Cafe Anglais. On retiring with him afterward, she 
was astonished to see him fix a bolt on the door, which 
he closed hermetically. He then took out of his 
pockets a heavy revolver, a dagger, two or three hand- 
fuls of silver coin, a gold watch and a small bottle 
covered with parchment. 

"She asked him what might be the contents of the 
bottle, and he replied that it was a remedy against epi- 
lepsy—a disease from which he suffered greatly— which 
had been compounded for him by an Austrian phy- 
sician. 

"Before morning I was advised of his presence, and 
on leaving her house he was arrested by my agents. 
On searching him we found in his pockets nineteen 
bank notes of one thousand francs each, and three 
pocketbooks containing fifty louis apiece (a louis be- 



PAIilS UNVEILED. 



ing equal to live dollars). There were no papers to 
give any clew to his identity, and neither his clothes, 
linen or hat had a single mark of any soi-t whatever. 

"His dagger was in a leathern sheath and his revol- 
ver was of American manufacture, but neither of them 
had any distinguishing characteristic. 

■'The revolver must have been recently used, for one 
of the cartridge shells is empty and the barrel of the 
firearm is blackened with powder. 

"In the crown of his beaver hat, concealed in the 
lining, was the small phial mentioned by the woman 
Gloria. It contained, not a remedy against epilepsy, 
but a small quantity of chloroform." 

"He is evidently a prominent and first-class criminal. 
Has he made any stateiaent?" 

"None whatever. Two facts induce me to suspect 
him of being one of the thieves who first robbed the 
Lyons bank and then the institution at Passy. One of 
these facts is that the money found on him corre- 
sponds exactly with that stolen at Passy— the other 
that while supping at the Cafe Anglais he drank a good 
deal of Maraschino and brandy— just like one of the 
Lyons gang." 

"I suppose you have these fellows catalogued and 
classified down to^a fine point ?" 

"I have been at a good deal of trouble to arrange the 
various classes of professional thieves by their slang 
names. 

"For instance there are: 

"Cambrioleurs—Toova thieves, from the slang word 
cambriole, a room. 

"CarroMbZcMzs— false-key thieves; from carrouble, 
slang for false key. 

••Fric-Fracs—dooT bursters. 

" Vanterniers—vfin&ow thieves. 

"Boucarmiersshop thieves. 

"And a lot of others. 

"All thieves are divided into two great sections— 
'high crooks' and 'low crooks'. High crooks are tlie 
finely-trained, fastidious, artistic rascals, who know 
their business and go about it with system and judg- 
ment. Low crooks are the careless, clumsy, hungry 
Bcoundrels, who have neither system nor finish. High 
crooks and low crooks occasionally work in company, 
but not often. When they do, it is always tlie high 
crook who does the scheming and lays out tlie work, 
which is executed by the low crook. 

"Novices in thieving principally occupy themselves 
in shop-lifting, which is practiced in several waj's. 
They begin very young and do some excellent work 
occasionally. One of the favorite 'rackets' of these 
novices is to snatch money from counters, or goods 
while they are being displayed. 

"As soon as a novice or 'rat,' as he is called, gets the 
collar, he is sent to la Petite Roquette, where he is 
thrown in with full grown crooks and gets the finishing 
touches put on his criminal education. He leaves the 
House of Con-ection uaturated with vice and villainous 
instruction." 

"A good many of tlie pickpockets arrested every day 
are foreigners, are they not ?" 

"Most of them are of foreign extraction. English 
and Italians are the most numerous." 

"Which in your judgment are the most dangerous ?" 

"Those who give you no clue to their character, and 
who operate in a noiseless well-trained way. These 
first-class operators you come -across everywhere— at 
the races, in theatres, churches, on the Stock Exchange, 
in the clubs— even at official receptions." 

"Nonsense 1" 

•'Yes, sir; 1 have (luietljr arrested some of the most 



daring at receptions— right here in the Prefecture of 
Police." 

"And you never notified the Prefect ?" 

"What would have beeu the use ? They wece such 
charming gentlemen and such fascinating ladies that 
nobody would have believed them capable of such a 
thing." 

"I have heard a great deal about a gang of thieves 
who are said to be called "the chloroformists.' Does 
such an organization ai'tuall.v exist ?" 

"It does. They have a trick, among otliers, of offer- 
ing their victims drugged cigars. In some instances 
death has followed." 

"What sort of creatures are these first-class thieves?" 

"A great many of them are liiglily educated and have 
the most refined and luxurious tastes. That is so much 
in our favor, for they cannot bear to live out of Paris, 
and when they make a big haul they invariably come 
to the capital to spend it. To head them off and keep 
them vinder control, I have established a corps of spec- 
ial officers who confine themselves exclusively to himt- 
ing down and shadowing professionals. They stick to 
their trail like bloodhounds, and sometimes pay for 
their diligence and fidelity with their lives. Officers 
and crooks emploj' tlie same agencies, tricks, devices 
and disgviises. To oppose the constantly increasing 
host of rogues and vagabonds, most of them highly 
accomplished and exceptionally intelligent, we need 
another army of at least equally shrewd and industri- 
ous officers. 

"During the International Exposition of 18G7 two hun- 
dred pickpockets were caught in the verj^ act of com- 
mitting their depredations. It was while arresting 
these malefactors that the detective police made a very 
curious and interesting di8cover.v. 

"Thirty of the pickpockets were supplied with stop 
watches, made with independent second hands, all ex- 
actl.v alike in every particular. There were no clues to 
the name and residence of the manufacturer. On each 
case was a star, etched with a needle. 

"When brought face to face these fellows pretended 
not to know each other. They were all convicted with- 
out any confession being extorted from them, and were 
sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. 

"Carried in the right pocket of each man's vest, the 
watches gerved for a badge and tallying mark by means 
of which these international rogues recognized and 
identified each other. 

"Quite recently I learnt that a rich American, business 
unknown, who spoke several languages, had ordered 
for the Exposition of 1867 one hundred watches of ex- 
actly this description, costing five hundred francs 
(SlOO) apiece. The thirty we seized on the persons of 
the thieves we apprehended were, beyond question, 
some of that lot. 

"A member of the gang, as you v?ill perceive, who 
turned up missing at the designated hoiir, meant one 
of them in police custody. The signal for the disap- 
pearance of the whole crowd, therefore, was the non- 
appearance of a single enlisted thief. 

"This jjroves that what we call Pickpocket Masonry- 
dates as far back as 1867. Since then the confederated 
thieves have turned up on all occasions- on steamboats, 
on railroads, at parades and processions, and especially 
on the race tracks. They are always to be found 'work- 
ing' wherever crowds are gathered together. They 
are especially busy in mass-meetings where much en- 
thusiasm is displayed, 

"The true pickpocket is no ordinary, commonplace, 
low-born, ill-bred criminal. A good many of them are 
known elsewhere as people of established position — 
sometimes even of respectability. Some of them are 




SHE GAVE HIM PARTICULAR FITS. 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



Baloon keepers or cigar dealers. Others are jewelers 
' or dealers in the precious metals. All of them have 
the appearance of honest tradespeople. They only 
practice their criminal trade during 'business hours.' 
The rest of the time they enjoy themselves as gentle- 
men of leisure. 

"The English pickpocket is the best known. You run 
across him everywhere; but that does not imply that 
he is the most skilful or the most prosperous. He en- 
joys a reputation, which is a good deal better than he is 
entitled to. He is stiff and mechanical, and though his 
hands and fingers are nimble and well trained, he goes 
too much by rule. 

"He is a tireless walker and, in the course of a single 
day, manages to 'take in' all the crowded parts of 
Paris. So great is his pedestrianism that he wears out 
the officers who are shadowing him in hopes of getting 
him 'dead to rights.' He is, also, remarkable for his 
caution. He never 'takes chances.' He never stays 
more than ten minutes in one place, and never goes 
through two victims in the same crowd. There is an 
exception to be noted to this general rule in the case of 
the race-tracks. There he is emboldened by the ex- 
citement and general heedlessness, and commits rob- 
bery after robbery, often without moving once. He is 
the only cool man in a sea of wild enthusiasm and up- 
roar. 

"His favorite haiint at the races is the paddock in 
which the jockeys are weighed. 

"Dressed in the height of fashion and backed up by 
skilful accomplices, he works like a dramatic star sup- 
ported by a well trained and thoroughly rehearsed 
company. When a rich sportsman approaches a book- 
maker's stand with a view to entering a bet, some of 
the gang get in his way while others hustle him in the 
rear. Surrounded by a crowd of men who, so he 
thinks, are bent on betting, like himself, he is shoved 
and bounced from one to another like a big rubber 
ball. As soon as he grows giddy and loses his head, 
the chief operator watches his opportunity and 
'snatches' his valuables. The plunder at once flies 
from hand to hand until it is far beyond all chance of 
recovery. 

■'As soon as a haul is made the gang disperses, and 
its members keep apart for awhile, amusing them- 
selves as best they can. By and by they tackle a fresh 
victim and go throiigh the performance exactly as be- 
fore. At the end of the day the 'takings' are compared 
and added up, in the most business-like way possible 
to imagine, and each man receives his share. 

"These English pickpockets have their signals and 
their system, just as the police have. They inform 
each other, under the code, whether business is good 
or bad, and it is a curious fact that they never give any 
information or encouragement to operators of another 
nationality. 

"Generally speaking, all Northern born pickpockets 
are alike. English, Bussian, Poles and Germans are 
all cold, methodical, audacious and persistent. They 
scarcely ever let go of a chosen victim until they have 
cleaned him out. 

"The German's specialty is the 'run-in'— a name ap- 
plied to the act of knocking so violently against a per- 
son as to confuse him to a degree enabling the thief 
to 'snatch' his money or jewelry. 

"To carry out his plans, he takes as a partner any 
kind of pal who may turn up, no matter whether he be 
English, Italian, Spanish or French. When he works 
he never bothers his head about the risks he runs, and 
he does not lose a minute. As soon as he sees a victim 
putting something valuable in one of his pockets, he 
Bticks to him like a shadow and only quits him when 



he has collared all his available property. He seldom 
hangs around the big shops or the race courses, and 
operates principally in big banking houses and other 
financial establishments. There he posts himself to 
see who receives large sums of cash and where it is 
placed by the receivers. He snatches the pocketbook 
the moment he has located it, before the victim, in 
some instances, has made a dozen steps. 

•'Another German specialty is the 'lifting' of a cash 
box while the man in charge of it is distracted by 
something else. This kind of robbery generally takes 
place in banks, where large sums of money are to be 
seen. The thieves begin by becoming thoroughly 
acquainted with the various locations, entrances and 
exits. Then they operate with security and confidence. 

"Whenever a German is caught 'dead to rights' he 
calls himself a 'bookmaker.' But he never gives his 
real name or address. Though he may have been con- 
victed a dozen times, it is only by good luck that we 
can ever make sure of the fact. It is a safe rule that 
he is always sentenced under an alias. 

"It is not from the North alone that we get our pick- 
pockets. Italy and Spain supply us with a good num- 
ber of 'artists,' who are easily recognized by their 
black hair and dark complexions. 

"Spanish pickpockets deserve a special mention. 
They are just as pious as they are rascally, and wear 
all manner of chaplets and relics and scapularies. In 
fact, they place their trade under the special protection 
and patronage of the Holy Virgin. 

"The moment they are arrested they drop on their 
knees and invoke the Madonna and all the saints to 
prove their innocence. No matter how overwhelming 
the evidence against them, they declare that they are 
wrongfully convicted and call heaven to witness that 
they are the victims of mistaken identity or oflicial 
malice. 

"These Spanish thieves go to work much as their 
English confreres. As soon as rogues of either nation- 
ality make a haul they go to the nearest drinking house 
and imbibe several drinks of brandy to put heart in 
them, as the phrase goes. 

' 'The Italian pickpocket is easily the best and smartest 
of all. He knows and thoroughly appreciates his su- 
periority, and sneers at the entire police of Europe. 
He goes on 'working' the same neighborhood inces- 
santly, without caring a particle for the fact that the 
officers of the law are on the look out for him. But, 
in the long run, his audacity ruins him, for he slips 
up when he least expects it, and the police seize him. 

" He is the artist of crime, is the Italian. 

" The Frenchman is eclectic. He trains with 'pals' 
of every other nationality, and he 'works' according 
to their rules. But in a convention of pickpockets the 
Italian would be unanimously chosen president. His 
elegant manners, his sprightliness and his courtesy 
make him especially dangerous. As soon as he descrys 
a victim, he brushes up against him, very lightly, and 
then apologizes so gracefully that the victim is too 
charmed and flattered to realize that he is being robbed. 

" From the point of view of dexterity, the Spaniard 
is the Italian's only rival. He, likewise, operates with 
ease and subtlety and lightness of hand. 

" A pickpocket never wears a glove on his right hand, 
and, usually, as a cover to his operations, he carries a 
light overcoat over his left arm. In winter he would 
attract attention if he carried the overcoat on his left 
arm, so he replaces it with a big silk neckerchief. At 
the entrance of a church or theatre he uses his hat as a 
shield. 

"The operation of pocket-picking is a most delicate 
one, Two fingers only are inserted in the pocket. In 



18 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



the lightest and daintest manner they seize the pocket- 
book, which IB held suspended for two seconds that 
the owner may not feel a sudden jar. At the same 
instant the confederate, who is in the rear, pushes 



matter and in a moment his pocketbook has vanished. 
"When the pocket is deep or closed by a button, the 
pickpocket is momentarily — only momentarily— re- 
pulsed. The next instant his whole hand is inserted 



against the victim. The victim turns to see what is the I and the thing is done." 



CHAPTER IV. 

MOBE CURIOUS DETAILS OF THE WAY IN WHICH FRENCH CRIMINALS OPERATE.-AT THEIR WOI 
-THE SCENES FREQUENTLY VISIBLE AT THE RAILROAD STATIONS. 



"An experienced o£B.cer is not satisfied with arresting 
the chief operator only. He always tries to collar his 
'covers' or pais. 

"That is why the 'chief invariably passes the plun- 
der to the next 'cover,' who passes it to a second, 
who, in turn, passes it to a third, and so on until it is 
in safety. 

"This makes it easy for the operator, when arrested, 
to insist upon his innocence, and protest with all the 
assurance in the world: 

"You are mistaken, sir; I haven't got anything of 
yours. I give you permission to search me.' 

"Then the 'covers' come forward and testify to the 
impossibility of the theft having been committed by 
their 'pal.' If they see that the of&oer is inexperi- 
enced, they talk loudl5^ of seeing that he is heavily 
fined for his grave mistake. Very often, in such a case, 
the detective thinks it is possible the victim maybe de- 
ceived, and lets the pickpocket go. 

"This is how they 'work' passengers at railway sta- 
tions: 

"As soon as a victim walks toward the compartment 
of a car, one of the 'covers,' made up as a tourist, 
with a valise in his hand and a bag slung over his 
shoulder, gets in front of him on the top step of the 
car, so as to give the 'operator' a chance. 

"Just behind the victim is another 'cover,' who gives 
him a shove, as if by accident. This enables the oper- 
ator to 'lift' the victim's purse unobserved. The 
moment the trick is done, the 'cover' in front ex- 
claims: 'Oh! this is the wrong train,' and promptly 
vanishes. 

"The performance is as brisk and as rapid as a flash of 
lightning. 

"The actual operator usually takes the train and gets 
OTXt at the first station. When rkilroad cars are taken 
to the repair shops, the workmen always find a certain 
number of empty purses and pocketbooks which have 
been concealed by pickpockets. 

"Very often two gangs of pickpockets 'work' the 
same territory without knowing each other. As they 
thread the crowd the two gangs observe each other, 
take each other for officers and then make a sudden 
and rapid disappearance. 

"It is often very difficult for an officer to conceal his 
identity, for an excess of precaution is very apt to put 
the thieves on their guard. 

"When he sees that he is recognized as a police offi- 
cer, the only thing left him to do is to retire to a dis- 
tance, without losing sight of the rascals. That gives 
him a chance to swoop down on them while they are 



dividing up their plunder. 

"At least two-thirds of the cases of jjocketpicking in 
Paris go unpunished. Thieves are arrested over and 
over again with plunder on their persons which has 
evidently been stolen, but no report of which has ever 
been made to the police. The trouble is that nearly 
everybody thinks himself or herself much too clever 
and too alert to be possiblj' victimized— until the fatal 
moment arrives. Then the contrary is very apt to be 
the resiilt of experience. 

"For example; 

"One of my officers, in search of a gang of money- 
snatchers, had occasion to be in a broker's office. Just 
by the door sat a young man who was busily employed 
in counting gold coins into a big wallet, while he held 
a wad of bank notes between his teeth. 

"As he passed him, my man remarked, 'That's the 
way to get badly robbed.' 

" 'Just you try it on,' was the young fellow's reply. 

"The officer shrugged his shoulders and passed 
along. 

"He had not taken fifty steps before there were loud 
cries of 'Thieves! Police!' 

"The officer ran quickly to the spot, only to be 
knocked down, jumped upon and seized by the throat. 
It was the young clerk who thus grappled with him, 
shouting 'Here is one of the gang!' 

"The unfortunate detective had to prove his inno- 
cence. In the meantime, the real thief who had 
snatched the banknotes out of the clerk's mouth, was 
far and away beyond pursuit. 

"About three weeks ago, one of the Judges of the 
High Court of Paris, leading a child by the hand, 
pressed up against the steps of an omnibus near the 
station of the Boulevard des Italiens. 

"Hardly had he done so when the officers on duty 
there saw three men, well-dressed and stylish, eai-h 
with a light overcoat over his arm. These fellows sur- 
rounded the judge, hustled him gently and then 
quickly withdrew. 

"Convinced that they had just seen a robbery com- 
mitted, the officers made themselves known to the 
Judge and asked him if he had missed anything. 

"The judge was very indignant at the bare suspicion. 
However, he consented to examine his pockets. 

" 'No!' he said, coldly, 'I have lost nothing." " 

" 'Is your watch safe ?' inquired one of the officers, 
pointing to his chain, which was hanging from his vest, 
two-thirds of it having been cut off. 

" 'You are right,' said tbe judge, penitently. 'I have 
t)een robbed,' 




SLUGGED HER SISTER. 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



19 



"These pickpockets operate everj'where. A fort- 
night ago at the marriage of a niece of the Minister of 
the Interior, a well-dressed person stole the pocket- 
books of at least ten of the guests. 

•'His capture was due to a mere accident. 

"Two officers happened to come up just as he was 
throwing several articles down the ventilator of a cel- 
lar. A pocketbook, striking a bar of iron, rebounded 
on the sidewalk. 

"The thief tried to take flight, but was arrested and 
lodged in the station house where, on being searched, 
he disgorged more than 2,000 francs ($400). 

"Th-e cellar, which was an old one and abandoned, 
was explored by the police who found, among broken 
lumber and old boxes, no less than 150 empty pocket- 
books. 

"Cases are on record where the pickpocket has ac- 
tually had the audacity to replace an; empty purse in 
his victihi's pocket. In one instance, the rifled pocket- 
book of a wife was actually returned to her husband. 

"Only the other day, Monsieur and Madame B., who 
reside in the Rue Valois, on the Place du Palais Boyal, 
entered an omnibus running between the city hall and 
the Maillot gate. They took two empty seats and sat 
opposite each other. 

"They got out at the Champs Elysees and the hus- 
band, not having the amount to pay for entrance to the 
Exposition, asked his wife for it. 

"She at once perceived that her purse had vanished, 
and with it no less than twelve francs. She had last 
seen it when she took it out on the Bue St. Honore in 
oTder to give ten centimes to a little girl who was lead- 
ing a blind man. 

"In the sculpture gallery. Monsieur B., who was sit- 
ting down, became aware of the presence of a solid 
body in the right hand tail pocket of his frock coat. 
Extracting it, he found it to be his wife's purse, com- 
pletely emptied, made fast by a rubber band to an- 
other which contained in a secret compartment a twen- 
ty-franc piece of the period of Louis Phillippe. 

"Madame B. remembered that in the omnibus a wo- 
man sitting on her right, who carried a shawl over her 
knees had. v?ith a very natural motion, covered her 
skirts with it in a manner to conceal the working of 
her hands. 

"On arriving at his depot the conductor of the omni- 
bus found behind the cushions two more purses. 

"There is another class of crooks known as 'cut 
purses,' who dress and act differently from the ordi- 
nary pickpockets. They are never encountered in 
shops, or railroad stations. Most usually they wear 
a long blue ulster, which is a capital substitute for the 
hat or overcoat. Their 'work' is of a much more difli- 
cult character than that of the ordinary pickpocket. It 
consists in getting possession of the long purse or 
pocket which every peasant usually carries. Last year, 
at the pork fair at Champigny, the sum of 950 francs 
was 'lifted' from a herder and seller of pigs. The vic- 
tim had placed a handkerchief over tne mouth of his 
money-bag. In the excitement of a quarrel, purposely 
got up by the thieves, one of them 'lifted' the handker- 
chief and inserted two fingers to steal the bag. The 
depth of the pocket, however, made this impossible. 
So he inserted his thumb, on the outside. This acted 
externally. 

"This movement, tenderly executed— the thumb 
working outside and the fingers in— prevented the vic- 
tim from feeling the bag mount \ip the length of his 
thigh. Gradually the lining of the pocket is turned 
inside out, like the finger of a glove. When it arrives 
at the top, the money bag naturally falls into the hand 
of the robber. 



"Unfoi-tunately for the thief, in this case, the money 
bag was upside down, and from its mouth there slip- 
ped several five franc pieces, which fell upon the floor 
and attracted the attention of the victim and his 
neighbors. 

"The pickpocket was captured at once, in spite of the 
assistance of his pals. 

"He was a good deal of a character, and was not at all 
averse to relate episodes of his career. 

"One of his stories was quite amusing: 

"He saw at a fair a rich countryman, the mayor of 
his village, reading in the Petit Journal the exploits of 
a gang of pickpockets. The rural magistrate could not 
understand how anybody could allow himself to be 
robbed In any such manner. 'It is only necessary,' 
said the worthj' man, 'to take some such simple pre- 
caution as I do. I always carry m.y purse in a double 
pocket which my housekeeper has fixed between my 
shirt and my vest. When I have my coat buttoned up 
over it, it would take a very clever pickpocket to re- 
lieve me of my valuables.' 

"Thus protected and with his arms folded over his 
breast as a further precaution, he stalked through the 
fail', inviting, unconsciously, the attention of all 
'crooks' to the fact that he had money on his person. 

"This is how he was eventually 'worked': 

"A rather long match was dexterously inserted at 
the back of his neck, between his shirt collar and his 
skin. It protruded in such a way that in a crowd or 
jostle, that the match head could be touched off by a 
lighted cigar or cigarette. 

"Then the 'operator' and bis 'covers' surrounded 
him as usual. 

"In another instant there was a terrible cry. 

"The match had been lit and was blazing behind 
his neck. His hands flew to the scorched and 
endangered spot. This at once left the pocketbook 
unguarded, and gave the thieves a chance to tear his 
clothes off him on pretence of rescuing him from be- 
ing burnt up. In another moment the object of their 
ingenious trick was in their hands and they vanished. 

"Pickpockets are most fertile in schemes and tricks. 
They have the gift of feeling by intuition when there is 
a good 'game' to play, and when they have resolved on 
a plan of action they carrj' it out at all hazards. 

"For instance, a contractor of pviblic works drew the 
sum of 65,000 francs ($13,000). When he got his money 
he locked it up in a big bag and handed it to his cousin, 
who was waiting for him in a cab on the Avenue Vic- 
toria. 

" 'Look out for it,' he said. 'Don't lose sight of it for 
an instant.' 

" 'You needn't be afraid,' was the reply, 'I'll keep it 
under the seat.' 

"The contractor went to several offices, on foot, fol- 
lowed by the cab. During the journey the bag was 
'lifted.' 

"The cousin had remained in the carriage, and the 
coachman had not quitted his seat. 

"The affair looked inexplicable— and vet. it was very 
simple, so far as the thieves were concerned. 

"The moment the cab left the Avenue Victoria, loud 
and piercing cries were uttered by a well-dressed man 
who was struggling in the roadway. He had, to all ap- 
pearances, been knocked down and badly hurt by 
some omnibus. In reality nothing whatever had hap- 
pened to him. 

"The clever rascals, bent on robbing the contractor, 
had 'put up the job.' While the incautious cousin was 
leaning out of th6 window, inquiring the caiise of the 
commotion, a cnfining scoundrel h^d slipped his hand 
under the seat aid snatched the bag." 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



"The thief who is an adept in hia nefarious profession, 
and who 'works on the parlor floor,' never goes into 
the country except with a fine outfit of all the tools 
necessary for the accomplishment of his criminal pur- 
poses. He carries with him the small sharp knife nec- 
essary for cutting out a money-base; a strong, fine pair 
of steel scissors to 'nip' watch chains, and the instru- 
ment used to make the angular incisions in valises. 

"This variety of thief always acts with nerve and 
judgment. His operations are invariably large and he 
disdains petty crimes, upon which he looks with con- 
tempt. 

"The lower order of 'crooks,' have their headquar- 
ters in dens in the neighborhood of the great markets. 
They are the lazzaroni of Paris, and are absolutely in- 
capable of honest work of any kind. 

"Like their brethren in Naples, they live from day to 
day on the proceeds either of theft or begging. 

"You can see them everywhere. Sleeping on the 
slopes of the fortifications in sttmmer or on the park 
benches. Tlieir nourishment is supplied by open-air 
dealers in cheap soup and other things. 

"As soon as one of these dirty, low-lived rogues 
makes a haul, he gets rid of his tatters, takes a bath to 
free himself of his vermin, dresses up in second-hand 
clothing and becomes a hawker of in-ogrammes, a 
ticket speculator, and sometimes, in a small way, a 
bookmaker on a race track. 

"This philosopher among vagabonds i« the least in- 
telligent and provident of them all. He is reckless to a 
degree, and seems, often, to lack ordinary sense. 

"Lodging-houses exist for him, of which he makes 
choice according to his means, which are known as 
'The Chamber of Deputies' and 'The Senate,' both of 
which are located in the neighborhood of the markets. 

"As his ttnconquerable indolence and love of roam- 
ing are constantly bringing him up in all sorts of 
places, he usually finishes tip by becoming a mere tool 
in the hands of the banditti who infest the barriers of 
Paris, in time developing into a really dangerous crim- 
inal. 

"It is from among these 'tramps' that the grand 
army of vice and wickedness unceasingly draws its re- 
crmtB. 

"I assure you that the majority of those who com- 
menced life as hangers-on of the markets fetch up 
eventually in the courts of justice, become the inmates 
of the central prisons, or go out as convict colonists to 
Noumea. 

"Now, a word about ottr female iiickpockets. These 
women have the appearance, dress and manners of the 
middle class, and their costume is varied to suit the 
character of the places in which they operate. 

"You come aoi'oss them in railroad stations, boat 
stations, on the promenades, in the theatres and mu- 
eetims, and, especially, in the great shops. Thej- only 
operate on members of their own sex. 

"Especially active are they in the public omnibuses, 
which always afford them a very rich harvest. 

"On week days the working hours of these women 
are from one o'clock to seven. On Sundays and holi- 
days thej' 'operate' all day long. 

"The changing from one omnibus to another gives 
them a splendid chance, for the crowding, jostling 
passengers are much too busy trying to get the best of 
each other to think of such a thing as a pickpocket. 

"When they travel in pairs, one of them 'snatch-es' 
the pocketbook and hands it to the other. If the vic- 
tim perceives that she has been robbedand grasps the 
thief,, the 'pal' drops the purse dexterously at her feet 
and, e.xclajms,' 'There's your purse, just where you 
dropped it.' 



"Then while the victim is eagerly recovering her 
money the two pickpockets vanish. 

"Sometimes the suspected one insists on being taken 
before a commissary of police. On being searched 
nothing is found on her, and she often insists on being 
indemnified for her arrest with a heavy sum of money. 

"The ample skirts and wraps which female pick- 
pockets wear afford a capital cover for their operations. 

"Once in a whUe these women work in pairs with 
male accomplices. In these cases the woman 'operates' 
and the man vanishes with the booty. In case the 
'operator' is interrupted and caught 'dead to rights.' 
the male accomplice comes forward in the cai^acity of 
an ofiicer and takes charge of the culprit. He gets the 
name and address of the victim, notifies her to attend 
at Police Headquarters, and then when her back is 
turned lets his prisoner go free. 

"The greatest number of female pickpockets come 
from Germany, but they are by no means the most 
successful or the most skillful. 

"The Englishwomen have raised theft almost to the 
height and dignity of an art. Blanoeuvring, by prefer- 
ence, with their left hands, they always keep the right 
gloved. 

"Spanish women are easily recognized by their 
diminutive figures, their dark complexions and their 
raxjid, gliding, insinuating motions. If a police ofBcer 
ajjproaches, instead of being alarmed, they quicMj' 
get him into conversation. They are extraordinarily 
impudent. One of them said to a police officer, whom 
she recognized in the stores of the Bon Marche: "My 
dear man, you're wasting time here. I'm working; but 
you'll never catch me.' 

"Frenchwomen as pickpockets do not lack address, 
but they are too eager to realize the results of their 
operations. The.y lose no time in examining a purse 
when they 'lift' one. In that manner they allow them- 
selves very often to be collared while counting up the 
proceeds of a haul. 

"Evers' day a new trick or 'racket' is invented by the 
pickpockets of Paris. Eor instance, at the Market of 
St. Germain, the other day, a woman, about forty 
years of age, conventionally dressed, carried a child 
about twenty months old, whose legs and feet she 
manipulated so as to get them over the openings to 
pockets. 

"At the riglit moment she lightly tickled with her 
left hand the legs of the child, while the right, masked 
by the same ingenious means, accomplished the usual 
'operation.' 

"If the victim felt a slight rubbing and turned, the 
pickpocket would give the baby a slap or two. and 
say. 

" 'Look out for yotir feet. You're dirtj'ing the lady's 
dress.' 

"This, naturally, disarms the victim of all suspicion, 

"I heard the other day of another modification of 
the art of pocketpicking. 

"A child, scarcely three feet in height, and not over 
eight years of age, was arrested in an omnibus for 
robbery from the person. This precious little jailbird 
was led around by his brother, a j'outh of seventeen. 
Keeping his hands in the pockets of his overcoat, he 
easily cleaned out his neighbor's, and, if their suspi- 
cions were aroused, his innocent, infantile face at once 
reassured them. 

"The pockets of his overcoat were bottomless, so that 
he had no difficulty in "operating." 
■"The 'lifting' r-f a watch and chain was, literally, 
:'child's plaj'" to him, and his average winnings were 
f rom:eight to ten pocketbooks a daj*— all the proceeds 
of which he dutifully turned in to his parents, 




AT THEIE MEECY. 



pahis unveiled. 



"When women pickpockets are arrested they resort 
to all sorts of dodges and devices. For instance: We 
had to deal, the other day, with a woman who made 
her living both t>y theft and prostitution. She was a 
very skilf al shoplifter, and was caught in the very act 
of 'working' a store. 

"On being released from Saint Lazare, she was put 
under police surveillance, and two inspectors arrested 
her on the Boulevard Sebastopol, not a hundred feet 
from the great stores of Pygmalion, where she had 
just 'lifted' a parasol, representing a value of twelve 
dollars. 

"She made no resistance, and submitted with a good 
enough grace to the officers. But when she arrived in 
the Rue des Lombards, she threw herself on the side- 
walk, yelling, 'Help! help! police! police!' 

A crowd at once gathered and, without having any 
idea of the real facts of the case, took the part of the 
thief against the officers. They were only too delighted 
to have a chance to show their hatred and contempt of 
the law. 

"The woman profited by this to exclaim: 'I'm an 
honest married woman, with a family. I haven't 
stolen a thing. That parasol I swear I paid for. You 
have no right to arrest me.' Then, tiirning to the mob, 
'These two blackmailers are trying to get some money 
out of me.' 

"The mob shouted: "Chuck them in the river ! 
Chuck them in the river.' 

"The situation was growing critical. A policeman in 
uniform came along. Instead of taking the woman 
and her captors to the station house, he insisted on the 
two inspectors showing their authority and explaining 
the facts of the case. In the confusion, while they 
were handling the parasol, the woman managed to es- 
cape, and the three officers were left alone to face the 
triumphant ridicule of the crowd. 

"Prisoners of both sexes are always rigorously 



searched. The officers minutely examine their hats, 
their shoes, their undergarments— every fold in their 
clothes. They make sure that there is no place left in 
which can be hidden money or weapons. 

"It is no uncommon thing to find money in the 
mouths of criminals. The other day a pickpocket 
calmly swallowed five pieces of ten francs each. 

"One thief had the ingenious notirn of sewing 
twenty-franc pieces inside his flannel under-vest. 
Another packed bank notes in the lining of his over- 
coat and under the insoles of his shoes. 

"A high hat serves a thief as a safe or a cash box. 
Inside, under the lining, he hides bank bills. On the 
outside he conceals, under the band, pieces of five and 
ten francs, sometimes even of twenty. 

"Years ago the secret police used to capture hun- 
dreds of pickpockets on all the race courses in and near 
Paris, In those days they had tickets granting them 
free access to every part of the track and stands. Now- 
adays, these free tickets are not distributed where they 
belong— among the real officers— but are bestowed 
upon politicians and others. The detectives, instead 
of being allowed to carry out their own plans and 
work in their own way, are placed under the com- 
mand of the police officer in control of carriages. 

"This gorgeous gentleman, in his showy uniform, 
attracts everybody's attention as he marshals his men 
and assigns them to their respective posts of duty. 
His principal use for the detectives is to send them in 
chase of beggars, programme peddlers and other small 
fry. 

"On the pretext of economy the municipal police 
have arranged for the transportation of ollicers in the 
ordinary omnibuses of the General Company, in which 
the criminals and crooks easily identify them. 

"Last year, under these conditions, seventeen heav- 
ily-filled pocketbooks were reported stolen in the 
weighing paddock alone. 



CHAPTER V. 



SAFE BURGLABIES. 



The next scene in M. Mace's graphic work is a de- 
scription of the trial before a "judge of instruction" of 
the unknown thief, mentioned in a preceding chapter, 
who called himself "Lover," and said he was thirty 
years of age, had been born in Paris and was the son of 
a very prominent government official. 

The •' judge of instruction,'' a purely French magis- 
trate, is one who had been expressly assigned by the 
State Attorney to investigate the 'gangs' of Paris. He 
knows their composition, speaks their language 
fluently, and knows their methods to a dot. He has 
rare tact in classifying malefactors and other criminals, 
and is of great assistance to the police in giving them 
the benefit of his experience. 

Here comes a word photograph of the judicial 
drama: 

The prisoner enters betwen the two officers known as 
Humming-bird and Porthos. He confronts the judge, 
who raises his eyes and regards him with a mild but 
penetrating glance. 

" Are you ready to make any statement ?" 

""Why not? I was with the fellows who broke open 
the safes." 

" How many of you were there ?" 



"Four." 

" Who were your accomplices ?" 

" I do not know their names." 

" What were their nicknames ?" 

"I don't know." 

" Where did you make their acquaintance ?" 

" On the road." 

"You have got a place of meeting?" 

"No regular place." 

" Don't you desire to speak ?" 

"Go ahead and see." 

" Lover isn't your name." 

" It's the nickname given me by my comrades. My 
family is a respectable one and I don't intend to let 
them be embarrassed by news of my arrest." 

" No doubt you can inform us of the circumstances 
which preceded, accompanied and followed the rob- 
bery ?" 

"I only know one thing, and that was the part I per- 
sonally played in the affair. It consisted, principally, 
in looking after the dog and seeing that he did not dis- 
turb us." 

" How did you effect that ? " 

" I gave him a large piece of meat that was a, trifle 



22' 



PAH IS UNVEILED. 



etrong and smelt a little. Dogs always prefer It to 
fresli meat. In it I inserted the little iJill which put 
him to sleep. It took a long while for the drug to 
work." 
•' How long were you there ? " 

" Almost an hour. We were prepared to find one 
safe only. The other put out our plans somewhat. 
We didn't know which contained the valuables." 

" So you carried them both off, in spite of their size 
and weight ? " 

" They weren't much of a job for four strong men 
to tackle." 

"Istipposeif you had been interrupted you would 
have used the firearms which were found upon you ? ' 
" Only to scare them." 

" Then you confess to having entered the ofBcs and 
helped to carry off the safes ? " 
" That's aboiit the size of it." 
" What was your original plan ?" 
" We intended to carry off' the safe in a hack which 
one of us had stolen on the edge of the market. If we 
bad done that it would never have been seen again." 
"Why not?" 

•' I'll tell you further on." 
" Go on !" 

" The hack was old and rickety and so we could not 
carry off two safes at once. On that account we would 
have had to make two trips. We had calculated the 
time— which was very short— and we had gone too far 
to retire." 
" What had you done '!" 

" We were provided with a two-wheeled hand-cart 
belonging to the Public Works, which the paviors had 
left at the corner of the Rue de Pompe and the Rue de 
Longchamps. In the box on the handcart were a lot 
of tools— pickaxes, chisels, spades, pincers, crowbars 
and other implements, made much stronger than our 
own, but not so light or so fine. We dumped the chest 
and put the two safes on the hand cart." 
" Nobody disturbed you ':•" 
' Not a soul." 

" If it had not been for this hand-cart, then, you 
would not have been able to i^arry off the safe ?" 

" Of course not. We would have had to return for 
the second safe." 
"Where did you leave the hand-cart ?" 
•' On the Rue de la Faisanderie." 
" How long did it take you to break open the safes ?" 
" With the tools we had— about forty-five minutes." 
"You persist in refusing to disclose your accom- 
plices?" 
"I do." 

"If you had not been short of time, where would 
you have taken the two safes ?" 
" To the Rite Boulamoilliers." 
" On what floor is your hiding-place ?" 
" Oh ! in the basement. But what is the use of wast- 
ing anj^ more time in questions ?" 
■■ How do you get in there ?" 
" Like any ordinary locksmith." 
" Do the janitors know you there '?" 
" There is only a' janitress. Perhaps she has seen me, 
b\it she certainly doesn't know me by name." 
" Are you willing to take me there ?" 
" With all the pleasure in life." 

The house in the Boulamoilliers was, to all appear- 
ances, a' very respectable one. A middle-aged woman 
was the janitress. In reply to a question from the 
judge she said that she had a Monsieur Monsignor 
for a tenant. 
" What is his business ? " 
"1 believe he is a dealer in antiquities." 



"Is he in?" 

"No. He is out of town. In fact, his real residence 
is in Anvers. He never sleeps here, and uses the base- 
ment floor for a storeroom, in which he keeps a lot of 
things, which are alwaj's carefully packed up." 
" Who brings his goods here ? " 
"Oh! Different men." 
" Are they well dressed ? " 

"Just about as well as you and the other gentlemen 
are." 
"How many of them are there ? " 
" Three— sometimes four." 
" Would you recognize Monsieur Monsignor ? " 
"Easily." 

"Look at this man, who is charged •with breaking 
into an inhabited building and committing a robbery." 
" That is not Monsieur Monsignor. I have never 
seen him before that I know of. My tenant is bigger 
every way. His hair and beard are red and he wears 
them quite long." 

"How do these men of whom you speak get into 
Monsieur Monsignor's quarters ? " 
"With a regular latch key." 
"Have you a latch key?" 

"No! The day my tenant signed the lease he had the 
lock taken off and a new one put on in Its place. The 
fastenings are very strong and if j'ou want to get in 
j'ou must get the help of a locksmith." 

At a signal from his chief the detective, Humming- 
Bird, went in search of the smith who had changed 
the locks. 

After a good deal of trouble the lock was forced and 
an entrance was effected. Then the windows and 
shutters were thrown open. The sudden influx of day- 
light disclosed, on the floor, three safes surrounded by 
empty boxes and packing case8,and a quantity of tools. 
On one of the boxes was found a railroad label read- 
ing: "Mails. Extra express. Marseilles." 
The judge asked Lover the origin of this box. 
"I don't know, and if I did this is not the time for me 
to tell you. However, I'll show you how we mastered 
these safes, which had the appearance of being so 
strong and which, as a matter of fact, are worse than 
useless. There isn't one of them that is proof against 

being . But I've had enough of this nonsense. 

Kindly send me back to my cell— for you won't get any 
more out of me to-day." 

" Wait a minute. I only want to ask you two more 
questions." 
" Fire away !" 

" The sum found on you belonged to C. D. & Co. 
Are you willing to restore it to them ?" 
•■ Not yet. They're rich and can wait a Uttle." 
" How do you know ?" 
"By the safe." 

"The police found in your hat a little phial filled 
with chloroform. What use did you intend to put it 
to?" 

" That makes a third question and it must be the 
last. I won't answer one more. That hat didn't belong 
to me." 

"That's a shrewd reply. It doesn't compromise 
you. Now, be good enoiigh to sign your deposition." 

Without a word the prisoner deliberately and slowly 
traced, in large Gothic letters, the name of Lover. 

Hvimming Bird, who had been listening impatiently 
to the interview, hastily fastened the 'come-alongs' to 
his captive's wrist. 

" I'm a burglar and not a murderer," exclaimed the 
latter. ' 'Why do you treat me this way ?" 
"To make more of you." was the reply. 
"I believe," remarked the judge, when the prisoner 



PAIilS UNYEILEB. 



had been removed, "that this fellow who calls himself 
Lover and his accomplice, Monsignor, belong to the 
Ejangt of criminals belonging to the immense association 
of international robbers, who are 'working' the conti- 
nent. These are the rascals who break into mail cars 



and baggage vans and rob freight trains in transitu " 

"Lover is a shrewd and dangerous rogue, and is a 
fair representative of his tribe. I do not see how he 
can escape a very heavy punishment this time." 



CHAPTER VI. 



'AMEEICAN STYLE" ROBBERY. 



When the Chief of Detectives dropped in next morn- 
ing on his sitperior, it was with this astounding infor- 
mation: 

"Lover has escaped." 

"How on earth did he manage it ?" 

"By means of an order of transfer, on which a clever 
forger had counterfeited the signature of the Judge of 
Instruction as well as the seal of the Court. The time 
he took in making his admissions enabled his confed- 
erates to set all their criminal machinery going to get 
him out of trouble." 

"Is there any clue of any sort or kind to the forger ?" 

"The very slightest. As I told you, the criminal 
classes nowadays are wonderfully well organized— for- 
gers, robbers and chloroformists. I am morally cer 
tain that this is the same gang which forged the check 
for 40,000 francs which was cashed three days ago by a 
bank on the Rue Saint Honore. 

"Is the house on the Rue Boulainotheis under 
watch ?" 

"Yesl Our female agent, Gloria, has taken board 
with the iahitress." 

"I am much mortified by the rascal's escape— but I 
hope to see him again next Monday, when I pay my 
official visit to the Mazas Prison." 

"It is understood, I believe, that we are going the 
rounds of vicious Paris again this evening, and, in con- 
sequence, I am at your service. I am merely waiting 
for my private secretary. When he arrives we will 
start. I am particularly anxious to become well posted 
on the several varieties of robbery which are called 
'American style,' 'the give-up,' and 'the chloroform 
dodge.' " 

"So far as the 'American style' is concerned, the 
newspapers have exposed it over and over again, and 
it has become so hackneyed that our reporters invari- 
ably wind up a description of one of these robberies 
with an expression of their surprise and amazement 
that human credulity should be so perpetually fresh 
and green. 

"The real 'American style' of robbery is not so easy 
to work as most people believe. It requires the com- 
plicity of at least three operators. The first of these, 
in America, is called the 'capper.' It is his business to 
find a victim who carries plenty of ready money which 
is easy of access. Such a customer he carefully watches 
and cultivates. 

"The second operator plays the part of a foreign 
traveler. He is, according to circumstances, an 
American, a Spaniard or a German. He must have 
rather a distinguished appearance, dresses appropri- 
ately and carries a satchel and a pair of field glasses 
slung over his shoulders. 

"The third actor says nothing— but does the business. 
He is called the 'worker.' 

"The bogus foreigner begins by following the 'cap- 
per ' while he picks up a victim. He then comes up to 



him just as he has made fast to the ' sucker.' 

" When the ' sucker ' and the ' capper ' are engaged in 
earnest conversation, the bogus tourist accosts the 
'capper' with a polite bow, and asks him, in broken 
French, to direct him to some church, which he men- 
tions, and which is a great distance off. He explains 
that one of his friends has entrusted to him a letter 
containing a large sum of money, which is intended 
for the priest of that church. 

"The 'capper' describes, with great volubility, the 
various neighborhoods and streets which he will have 
to traverse to reach the church which he aaks for. 

" The bogus traveler pretends not to understand the 
directions, and winds up by bringing a foreign gold 
piece out of his vest pocket which he oifers to the ' cap- 
per' as an inducement to personally show him the 
road. 

"The latter hesitates for a moment or two, then 
accepts and urges the 'victim' to make one of the 
party and come along, agreeing to divide the ' tip ' with 
him, as well as make the foreigner 'put up' more 
money for refreshments, etc. 

" They accordingly set out, and before very long the 
bogus traveler informs the 'capper' that he has just 
arrived in Paris, and that his satchel contains a num- 
ber of English gold pieces which he wants to change 
into French currency with as little loss as possible. He 
has a fear of being swindled by the regular money 
brokers, who are not often honest in dealing with for- 
eigners. 

'"Why, here is yotir chancel' cries the 'capper,' 
nudging his victim. ' This gentleman here has a lot of 
bank bills which he won't mind changing for specie- 
provided, of course, that he makes some discount off 
you.' 

"And the honest fellow tips the 'sucker' a wink, as 
much as to say, 'I'll see your profit is big enough on 
the transaction.' 

"To inspire confidence, the bogus tourist takes five 
or six rolls of specie out of his valise. At either end 
the 'sucker' distinctly sees a gold coin. 

"The exchange takes place in a cafe with two en- 
trances. On some exciise or another both the opera- 
tors step out, leaving the victim alone. When he be- 
comes suspicious and opens the roll he finds, indeed, 
that they have a coin at either end— but the bulk of 
them is made of lead pipe. 

"It is an old trick, and the only novelty is in the ap- 
plication of it. There are various ways of putting it 
into execution. Sometimes the 'capper' offers to con- 
duct the 'victim' and the bogus traveler into a house of 
ill-fame, not far from the fortifications. Before doing 
so, he suggests that it woiild be very dangerous to take 
any considerable siim of money into siich a place. So 
he recommends them to deposit with a responsible 
landlord, all their valualiles to be kept in his safe. 

"The 'capper' and the bogus traveler join the 'suci' 



24 



PARI Pi UNVEILED. 



er' in this priideut step. By and bj', when they are all 
flown with wine and excitement, the bogus f oreignei' 
suggests that the 'sucker' shall go and get their purses. 
Tickled bj' such a proof of confidence he hurries round 
to the place of deposit, only to find that tlie 'worker' 
has preceded him with the landlord's receipt and dis- 
appeared with all the valuables. He rushes roimd to 
the house of ill-fame to tell his new found friends, 
and is petrified to find that they, too, have vanished. 

"As you may perceive, patience is a 'capper's' sov 
ereign virtue. He often spends an entire week hunting 
his game without any result whatever. 

"The real 'American style,' as I said before, is not so 
easy as most people imagine. 

"Its execution is only undertaken by the very first- 
class crooks. 

"The fellows engaged in it are the very flower of the 
ci'iminals of all nationalities. It is an immense organi- 
zation, and its operations are usually conducted on a 
gigantic scale, with great daring and skill. 

"The first-class operators of 'the American style' 
hang round the great railroad stations and make a 
business of laying for the simple people who are re- 
turning to the countrj' to end their days in comfort on 
the small fortunes they have accumulated with great 
thrift and toil. 

"So thorough is the organization of these rogues that 
the principal members restrict themselves to constant- 
ly crossing between America and Europe. They are 
thus enabled to become acquainted with the passen- 
gers on board the steamers, and deliberately select 
their victims. 

"Usually they take leave of the victims on the boat. 
A cipher dispatch is forwarded to the 'workers,' in 
which are full descriptions and particulars. 

"These latter ar» so precise and so accurate that 
sometimes a mere exchange of satchels suffices. When 
the victim arrive.s at his destination and unpacks his 
money-bag he finds it f uU of pebbles and other rub- 
bish. 

"As soon as the victim who has been described lands 
from the steamer or the railroad train, he sees ap- 
proaching him, according to his own nationality, an 
Italian, an Englishman, a German or a Frenchman who 
sets out to gain his confidence. He wears a costume 
similar to that of the victim and introduces himself as 
a fellow-coimtryman. 

"The principle involved in this sort of robbery is 
confidence. Everything depends on that. Tlie guide 
who offers himself to the traveler leaves nothing un- 
done to gain it. He gives out that he is a rich man, 
very kind hearted and anxious to be of service to his 
countrj'man. He speaks to him, in his native language, 
of his country, his village, his family and otherwise 
plays upon the sensibilities on which the cipher des- 



patch has posted him. 

"The Tmfortunate 'sucker,' delighted with sucli un- 
looked-for good fortune, is convinced that he has in- 
deed fovind a fellow-countryman— one who is almost 
a brother. He tells him everything, his past as well as 
his future hopes and prospects. 

"If a police officer were, at this stage, to interrupt 
the little game and warn the victim, the chances are 
that he would take his trouble for nothing. 

"To account for their being on hand, the 'operators' 
declare that they are on their way to collect a legacJ^ 
Legal processes and settlements are long and tedious 
and they have to be patient. Thus, bit by bit, they win 
the entire confidence of their victims. 

"The poor devil, thus taken in tow, partially yields 
absolutely to the influence and suggestions of his new 
found friend. 

"The latter deluges him with good advice. 

" ' Look out for thieves in Paris,' he says over and 
over again. ' The town is full of rascals— fellows who 
keep an eye on you and who are bound to get your 
money somehow or anyhow. If they succeed, it is all 
up with you. Sometimes the police make an arrest or 
two— but they never recover a single sou of the 
plunder. Take my advice as that of a man who is not 
only a compatriot, but who knows a thing or two. In 
fact it wouldn't be a bad idea to let me take charge of 
your cash and defray your expenses until you are 
settled.' 

"The 'sucker' is visibly impressed by the friendli- 
ness and goodfellowBhip as well as by the experience 
of the cunning ' operator " 

"The latter continues: 

" 'You see I have had to paj' for my knowledge, and 1 
defy any thief to get tlie better of me.' 

"In due time the victim hands his valuables over to 
the thief. That evening the latter hands his dupe 
twenty francs to buy some good cigars with. The 
'sucker' steps into a shop to execute the commission. 
When he emerges his benefactor has vanished. 

"In this business the Italian operator takes the very 
first place. He is naturally endowed with gracious and 
prepossessing manners, and is wonderfully serious and 
impertm-bable. He possesses every quality that makes 
an ideal operator, and is as full of intrigue and diplo- 
macy as any Oriental. 

"Tlie tactics of these fellows is superb. They take 
in an entire street and both sides of it when they are 
'working,' so as not only to keep an eye on the 'sucker,' 
but to watch the police. 

"Every gesture of their confederates is a signal which 
tliey immediately understand and act upon. It takes 
officers of I'are skill and knowledge to keep abreast of 
these dangerous and subtle scoundrels, 



PARIS UN VEILED. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE "GIVE-UP" STYLE. 



"The three most active varieties of thief are the pick- 
pocket, the American-style confidence operator and the 
'give-up' crook. Each has his own way of working and 
bis own rules and Systems. 

"I have special detectives for each class of "crook," 
and they have plenty of work on hand usually. 

"The 'give-up' thieves are divided into two classes, 
whose manners and customs are diametrically opposed. 

" The first is the least dangerous, but it expends its 
strength in the enjoyment of an impunity which is al- 
most guaranteed to it by the kind of life it leads. It is 
made up of Bohemians. 

" France, like all other civilized countries, has been 
oveiTun for centuries by men who are in constant re- 
bellion against the regulations of society, who revel in 
idleness and look forward exclusively to enjoying 
themselves at other people's expense. They have an 
actual horror of any regular occupation or toil. 

"They are easily identified by their strongly marked 
features and their dark complexions. 

"Belonging to no nationality in particular, they hate 
all \vith equal ferocity, and pass their existence defy- 
ing the laws of every well-govei-ned people under the 
sun. These fellows speak a jargon, utterly unlike any 
known langiiage, the words of which are generally 
long-drawn and uncouth, or soft and agreeable, ac 
cording to circumstances. It is a sort of gipsy dialect 
invented by themselves, which is as full of business 
meaning as a commercial cipher code. 

"They inhabit the vehicles called 'caravans' which 
are often seen in the neighborhood of the fortifications 
and where the sexes commingle in the most brutal and 
disgusting promiscuity. 

"Their existence, in these locomotive dens, is that of 
the fox. Indeed, they seem to select that wily animal 
as their model, and imitate him with unconscious 
fidelity. 

" Prof essing a great scorn and contempt for honest 
and serious work, they possess, all the same, in the 
highest degree, a spirit of forethought. They are, 
comparatively speaking, sober and frugal. 



"These Bohemians, who call themselves Ramonittch- 
els. practice various professions, which are always of a 
wandering and irregular nature. They are peddlers, 
fortune-tellers, wild-beast tamers. 

"They are much given to arson and incendiarism, if 
such crimes are necessary to carry out their plans of 
robbery. But they seldom have enough courage to 
commit murder. 

"The men are principally addicted to stealing ani- 
mals and poultry. Their chickens and their horses are 
ill-gotten, as a rule. 

"The children, wi-etchedly clothed, without shoes or 
stockings, peddle wicker-baskets. 

"The women all practice the "give up' game, which 
consists in inducing an innocent victim to put down a 
piece of money for some object, the article and the 
cash both disappearing like a miracle. 

"Some of them, the more skillful especially, have 
other tricks. Knowing by experience the stupidity and 
credulity of the peasant women, they tell them that 
they (the gipsies) have second sight, and that their 
purses contain false money. The peasants, frightened 
out of their lives, at once reveal their purses and their 
contents, upon which the theives pronounce all for- 
eign coins to be counterfeits, and promptly confiscate 
them with an air of benevolence. 

"The second class of these rogues is the more for- 
midable. It is made up of gamblers, touts and black- 
legs generally. Their specialty is the getting 
of a storekeeper to change a banknote of considerable 
amovmt. The moment the change is made the operator 
dashes off with it and with the banknote as well, 

"In every instance the operator either hires or owns 
a fast horse and a light trap in which he easily evades 
pursuit. Of course it is in provincial towns that these 
rascals achieve their greatest success. 

"Another trick is worked in couples. While one 
thief bargains with some storekeeper for an article, at 
a given signal another enters and distracts the mer- 
chant's attention. In an instant some valuable dis- 
appears." 



26 



PA HIS UNVEILED. 



•'Before familiarizing you with the tricks and devices 
used by the chloroformists, you must permit me, 
Monsieur the Prefect, to benin with a story of which 
a very prominent and well-known financier is the 
hero. 

"It is related to the subject which you are so anxious 
to know all about. 

"This money-making speculator, who was of German 
origin and the owner of a large fortune, made rather 
questionably on the Stock Exchange, was a prisoner in 
Mazas. 

"He was convicted, in spite of his nationality or the 
help of several political friends who would not care to 
see their names dragged through the mud and mire of 
criminal proceedings. He had been, at various times, 
closely connected with men who would make any and 
every effort to save him rather than be involved by 
name in his ruin and disgrace. 

"The Attorney-General was deaf to all pleas and in- 
tercessions, however, and several eager offers of bail 
were firmly but politely declined. 

"What made the authorities all the more implacable 
was that a well-connected rogue of the same sort and 
class had been treated with great indulgence, and had 
made up for it by a sudden and mysterious disappear- 
ance. Strict orders, therefore, were given to the police 
officers who had him in charge and who, every morn- 
ing at 10 o'clock, conducted him to the oSice of the ex- 
perts who were charged with examining his books. 

"One privilege, however, had not been withdrawn 
from him. He was allowed to lunch every noon, at his 
own expense, in the office of -the experts. 

"A waiter brought him, daily, a hamper of provi- 
sions in such great abundance that they would have 
sufficed for several persons. In full view of the offi- 
cers, the culprit absorbed, in one order, a lobster, a 
chicken, some Perigord pie, cheese and fruit, the re- 
past being irrigated by some fine white wine. 

"The officers hiirriedly devoured, meanwhile, some 
bread and cheese, with a few figs or other fruit for 
dessert. 

" 'Try some of this Strasburg pate or a chicken wing. 
You mvist have quite an appetite watching me eat.' 

"The Prefect had established a rule that none of his 
subordinates should accept even the very slightest 
favor or gratuity from a prisoner, so the two officers 
declined the offer with thanks. 

"Every evening between seven and eight, the prison- 
er was conducted back to the House of Detention and, 
acting under orders, he was always transferred in a 
cab, in the custody of the same agents. 

"This is how he got the best of them. He always 
smoked cigars, expressly imported from Havana, of 
the very best brand. The gilt bands on them read: 
'Non plus ultra.' 

"One night, a hack with doors and window blinds 
closed, drew up at the entrance to the Blazas prison. 
The driver, seeing nobody alight, descended from his 
box, opened the door and of the three passengers with 
whom he had started saw only two. 

"He shook them soimdlj', for both were fast asleep 
and snoring. Being able to do nothing with them he 
summoned a policeman, who jumped on the box and 
directed him to drive arovind to the police station of 
the quarter. 

"When the two sleepers awoke they appeared to be 
Btupified and confused. The last thing thejf recollected 
was that on the Place de la Bastile they had been seized 
with very strange and disagreeable symptoms, which 
ended in vertigo and unconsciousness. Contrary to 
their general practice each had accepted a cigar from 
the prisoner— and the cigars were drugged." 



"Are there many thieves who use narcotics ?" 

"There are a few, and they must not be confounded 
with the chloroformists. They make a specialty of 
dealing with the simpletons who are always ready to 
drink with anybody whether thej' know him or not. 
After being assured that the victim has money on his 
person, the operator treats him to a cigar loaded with 
opium, or pours into his glass some narcotic drops, 
which lull him to sleep and facilitate the work of 
robbery. 

"Often these fellows operate on bank clerks and 
messengers whom they pick up in the saloons near the 
big railroad stations. Frequently they lie in wait in 
these places, smoking or playing dominoes, but keep- 
ing always a bright look-out for 'subjects.' 

When a 'sucker' turns up they engage him in a casual 
conversation and then propose a little game of some 
kind just for the drinks. 

" The ' sucker ' wins at first, and is naturally delight- 
ed. Little by little his sensations of pleasure begin to 
diminish. His motor nerves perform their functions 
badly and irregularly. A general sensation of confu- 
sion and discomfort pervades him. He can't explain 
his feelings, but he begins to lose control of himself. 
In due time he loses his faculties. He drops his cards 
and sinks into an uneasy but profound slumber, from 
which he wakes to find himself minus his watch and 
money, in the presence of a landlord who is angrily 
demanding payment for the drinks. 

"The victim of such a process is always very sick, in 
consequence. Biit the 'dose' is never fatal— some- 
thing which cannot be said of the administration of 
chloroform by crooks. 

'Some surgeons declare that it is very difficult— 
almost impossible— to administer chloroform to an tin- 
conscious sleeping individual. Others affirm that it is 
quite easy. On this score the chloroformists coiild give 
both a good deal of enlightenment and information. 
For they employ it with great skill, sometimes using a 
sponge, and sometimes administering it on a pocket 
handkerchief. 

" As everybody knows, chloroform when used reck- 
lessly, is a ver3' dangerous drug, and often has the 
most deplorable consequences. 

"These chloroformists are most skillful and auda- 
cious. You meet them on railroads, on steamships, in 
hotels. Essentially cosmopolitan, they spend the 
greater portion of their lives travelling. They are as 
full of geographical information as a guide-book, and 
they know every watering-place and health resort pa- 
tronized by millionaires and persons of means. 

"The chloroformist is usually a 'spoiled' medical 
student who has taken a course, either in whole or in 
part, at the Schools, where he has learned how to use 
narcotics. 

"A man of the world, full of information and good 
humor, his conversation is usually very agreeable, and 
he speaks two or three languages with fluency and 
grace, generally of a most prepossessing exterior. 
When he deals with women he usually figures as a rich 
bachelor with matrimonial designs. He is especially 
sueccBsf ul with wealthy and vulgar 'mamas'— for he 
takes extra pains to ingratiate himself with that class. 
"When traveling or 'working' on a railroad, this is 
how he operates: 

"He first 'places' a pocketbook. That is to say, he 
hangs round a railroad station until he sees and selects 
a particularly well-lined purse. When he has made 
his choice he buys a ticket for the same destination as 
his victim. In his satchel he carries a supply of eat- 
ables and cigars, and above all, of some excellent 
liquor. Often a pack of cards makes up his outfit. 




THE BUKGLAB 11^ THE CONVENT. 



PABIS UNVEILED. 



"He gets into the same compartment with his victim 
and dexterously engages him in conversation. When 
a third of the trip is traversed he cleverly leads the 
discussion to a denunciation of the stop-over eating 
saloon, makes fun of the viands and protests that he 
can't for the life of him endure the bustle and hurry 
of lunching under such conditions. The next step, 
and the most natural in the world, is to offer his fel- 
low traveler a share of his own dainty provisions. 

"In case of refusal, when his repast is finished, he 
politely offers the victim a drugged cigar or a 'dosed' 
glass of liq.uor. 

"The conversation is sustained— but grows tiresome. 
The rumble of the train swells into an ominous roar. 
Iff an incredibly short space of time the luckless 
■sucker' drops into a heavj^ lethargy. The chloro- 
formist at once uncorks his little phial and keeps it for 
some seconds under the nose of the sleeper. At the 
same time he gently applies a leaf of the thinnest pos- 
sible parchment over his mouth to keep him from in- 
haling atmospheric and unvitiated air. 

"This parchment is called 'a stifler,' and is made like 
the bottom of a carnival mask. 

"Thus secured, the thief goes to work with speed, 
yet deliberation. He opens the coveted pocketbook 
and quickly empties it of all save one or two small bank 
notes. He replaces it in the pocket where he found it, 
and disdains to appropriate the jewelry on his 
'subject's' person. 

■'At the next station he alights and disappears. 

"Of course he spares his victim's jewelry because it 
might give a clew to him and cause his arrest. 
He has another motive for always leaving 
a little money in the pocketbook. It is this: The 'vic- 
tim' finding some money left, decides that he was not 
robbed but must have been cheated in making change, 
or must have dropped some of his wealth. Another 
and graver motive for leaving some money in the 
pocketbook is this: 

"Suppose the 'dose' were to prove fatal. The author- 
ities on examining the corpse and finding money and 
jewelry on it. would never suspect that a robbery had 
been perpetrated. 

"It may have been a singular coincidence, and it 
maj' have been something else, but recently on a single 
railroad, at the same hour and the same place, three 
mysterious unknown corpses were found, two of them 
in the same compartment. 

"On steamers, the chloroformist uses all his tricks 
and devices. Life on board is dull and monotonous. 
Time hangs heavy and has to be killed. Everybody 
gets stupid and drowsy and falls asleep watching the 
sky and waves. 

"An agreeable and vivacious conversationalist has 
everything his own way. It must be remembered that 
most ocean travelers are very uninteresting people. 

"The chloroformist usually passes himself off as a 
doctor, knowing that women have a special weakness 
for medical men. If the weather turns out rough, he 
is full of suggestions and prescriptions. What, for 
instance is to be compared with a nice fresh egg, 
beaten up in a little Madeira ? Father, mother— the en- 
tire family regards him with admiration and gratitude. 

"Xbe egg^ji.d Madeira prescription gives his othej 



fellow passengers confidence in him. How easy then, 
to 'dose' some rich planter or American traveler. 

"When they land, he freezes on to his real victim, 
whom he usually invites to dine wit^ him in a com- 
fortable restaurant where they can get a private room. 
The private room is close and stuffy and the window 
is opened to give them air. The dinner is finished and 
the waiter has gone to fetch the coffee and liqueurs. 
The thief seizes his opportunity and invites his friend 
to get a breath of fresh air at the open window. The 
cofl'ee is served meanwhile. Then the 'operator' calls 
the attention of his guest to some girl passing by. 
When his attention is diverted, the 'dose' drops merci- 
lessly into the victim's coffee cup. Then the victim 
drinks— and falls asleep. As if everybody doesn't fall 
asleep after a good dinner ? 

"I have a cousin who was the secretary and treasurer 
of a large industrial and commercial company which 
had its headquarters in Bordeaux. He visited Paris 
three or four times every year. Being a man of regu- 
lar habits, on each occasion he went to the same hotel, 
which is one of the best appointed and most exclusive 
In town. 

"On his last visit, he put up at this house. That af- 
ternoon he had drawn from his bank, in cash, the sum 
of 50,000 francs ($10,000). As he was obliged to leave 
very early in the morning, contrary to his usual habit, 
he forbore to deposit his money in the hotel safe. 

" He went to bed at nine o'clock. He put his clothing 
on an easy chair after making sure of the presence, in 
one of his pockets, of the 50,000 francs, done up in tha 
identical parcel he had drawn from the bank. 

" My cousin, for twenty years, always and invariably 
woke every morning at four o'clock. It was an abso- 
lutely ineradicable habit with him. 

" At nine o'clock next morning he was still asleep. 
By and by he opened his eyes, vaguely conscious of 
having heard unusual sounds in his sleep. 

" His instant reflection was 'I have been robbed.' 

" A hasty glance confirmed the suspicion. The 
drawer of the dressing case, instead of being in its 
usual place, was at the other end of the room, in an 
easy chair. In it were his key, his watch and a certain 
amount of money. 

" Bounding across the room he wildly opened the 
pocket of his coat. The .package was still there, but 
its seal had been broken, and, instead of his 50,000 
francs it contained a supplement of Figaro. 

" He notified the police instantly, and a most vigor- 
ous search was made. The landlord of the hotel took 
extra trouble to try and get some light on the robbery. 
So far as his employees were concerned they seemed 
to be beyond all suspicion. 

■'He had, beyond all doubt, been followed and , 
shadowed, and, through his negligence in omitting to 
shoot the bolt of the door, entrance had been easily 
effected with a false key. 

" My cousin said that on waking he felt a peculiar 
and most disagreeable sensation in the joints of his up- 
per jaw and a horrible tickling or pricking in his nose. 
His expression was vacant and wandering and it was 
all he could do to carry his head straight. 

"During the whole of the next day he was inces- 
santly struggling with a desire to go to sleep, 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



CHAPTER Vin. 



CHLOEOFOKHnSTS AND SHOPLITTEES. 



"Mr. WilliamBon, the Chief of Police of public bp- 
curity in London, arrived in Paris the other day in 
search of a very dangerous Dritch criminal, who was 
interrupted in the very act of committing a robbery in 
a hotel close by Charing Cross railroad station. 

" When the victim was first seen, laid out on abed, 
pale and motionless, she was taken for dead. She was, 
however, merely in a heavily drugged shimber. 

"The thief in getting out of the window, had been so 
pressed that he had left his hat behind him, in the 
crown of which he had fixed with a light elastic loop 
a small flask or phial of black glass, which had con- 
tained chloroform. 

"Between the bed and the table BIr. Williamson 
picked up a sponge, shaped something like a mush- 
room, in the hollow of which lingered the character- 
iBtic etherial vapor of chloroform. 

"It came out in our inquiries that the robber's sister 
had been once employed in the English hotel, and that 
Blie was, afterwards, a servant in that in which my 
cousin was drugged in Paris. 

"Unfortunately we could find no cluo to the where- 
abouts of either of them. 

"I had occasion once to converse with a forger, who 
was in a prison hospital, and who was acquainted with 
some very well-known chloroformiets. 

"The first question he asked me was, 'Did they leave 
your cousin any money and his jewehy.' When I re- 
plied in the afiirmative, he said, 'Just bo. That's their 
regular way of doing business. Kegular habits are 
fatal blunders on the part of crooks. 

" 'Cliloroformists are artists out and out. I have 
seen them at work and known them intimately for 
fifteen years and I have never known one to get 
pinched.' 

" 'Aren't you exaggerating?' I said. 

" 'Not a bit,' he responded, and he told me the fol- 
lowing: 

" 'Wlien Hived in Chicago there X^'as a good deal of 
talk about a gang of chloroformists, who held an an- 
nual meeting at which new sets of grips and pass 
words and other signals were decided upon. The em- 
blem of tlie gang was a trinket, a ring, a breastpin, the 
handle of a cane or of an umbrella— something easy to 
show and see. Correspondence between the members 
of the gang was always signed bj' three initials and 
double numbers— for instance: B. K. V.— 19.22.' 

"The chloroformists conceal with the greatest care 
everything likely to betray tlieir identity or their occu- 
pation. The moment they are arrested they bend 
every energy to destroy the tell-tale phial of chloro- 
form which the.v carry. 

•'The principal French cities in which they carry on 
business are Havre, Dunkerque, Eouen, Bordeaux and 
Marseilles. 

"It is an iinpromising sign that women of the town 
have taken to practising the chloroforua racket. The 
other day two prostitutes were taken dead to riglits 
committing a robbery in the Hotel Splendide. On both 



of them were found small phials of black glass full of 
i chloroform. 

"They were passing for two young sisters jttst ar- 
rived from the country to stop over night in Paris. 

"The black glass phials proved that they were in in- 
timate relation with persons having special acquaint- 
ance with drugs and the handling of them. W^omen, 
as a rule, do not know without being told that air and 
light have a damaging influence on chloroform. 

"The use of narcotic poisons has a moat confusing 
effect on all judicial magistrates. In the first place, the 
victim does not know whether he has been in a natural 
or a drugged sleep. The idea does not occur to him. 
and instead of being closely questioned by judges 
with a proper theory, many an important clew is al- 
lowed to go bj^ default. 

"In case of a death from narcotic poisoning caused 
by a chloroformist, if it has taken place at a hotel, 
there is very naturally a strong desire on the part of 
all concerned to gloss the affair over. An autopsy is 
scarcely ever made. If it were made some very curi- 
ous disclosures might ensue. 

"The tribe of thieves and assassins does not diminish. 
On the contrary, it is always increasing and constantly 
multiplying its various methods of doing business. 

"Rooberies with violence and commonplace bur- 
glaries will, in due time, disappear, and a more highly 
cultivated and skillful school of scoundrels is fast 
being spread over the world at large. 

"For instance, it is only recently that murders and 
thefts of moving railroad trains have become common. 

"They used to be quite rare. 

"To be robbed or murdered while traveling used to 
be regarded as a fantastic and romantic thing, barely 
possible, whereas, in our day, both crimes are fre- 
quently committed. 

"The great shops of Paris, some thirty in number, are 
always well patronized by high and low crooks. ThcKe 
immense places, built and conducted like markets, 
are so many ant-hills, swarming with clerks and cus- 
tomers. They are constantly robbed b.v the staff of 
employees and by the people who come there pre- 
tending to do some shopping. Once a month there is 
a bargain sale in most of them, which are den8el,v 
thronged by women, idlers and the silly, mentally in- 
firm creatures who are in search of amorous intrigues. 
These crowds afford excellent opportunities to the in- 
dustrious army of thieves. 

"In the case of shoplifters, a woman penetrating to 
the centre of one of these vast establishments is im- 
mediately surrounded by every variety of temptation 
and seduction. A dangerous influence permeates and 
controls her. If she hesitates, she is, indeed, lost. It 
is not only her pocketbook which is imperilled. Too 
often her character and the fair fame of her family 
are at stake. 

"On every ground I object to the immense bazaar of 
the present day. They confront the weaker sex with 
every form of ee4uotioii> ^eiuptation and comnotion. 




NABBED BY FEBIALE PICKPOCKETS. 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



29 



Vastly to be preferred were the modest shops of ancient 
days where women sought what they really wanted, 
and were not cajoled into acquiring, no matter how, 
what they actually did not need. 

"It is an ominous and most significant fact that 
during the past five years no less than one hundred 
and tifty robberies have occurred every day in the 
thirty principal stores of Paris. That makes a daily 
average of five robberies in each store, and as only the 
gravest and most serious are reported, you can form 
an idea of the tremendous dishonesty rife in these 
mammoth establishments. 

" It has been proved by official research that the de- 
tective police and the special officers employed by the 
stores only discover one-fourth of the depredations 
committed in them. 

"In order to avoid all danger of false imprisonment, 
an arrest is only made when the prisoner has been 
seen to commit two robberies running. The detective 
police operate only on the sidewalks and the edges of 
the crowd. Within the building, the special officers, who 
are usually retired policemen, have exclusive charge. 

"When a regular detective makes an arrest he has to 
conduct his prisoner immediately before a commis- 
sary of police. When the capture is made by one of 
the special officers of the establishment, he rings an 
electric bell, which at once convenes the directorate 
of the store, before whom the prisoner is brottght. 

"The directorate acts upon the case without any 
delay or hesitation. If the prisoner confesses the 
theft, proves her identity and signs an obligation to 
indemnify the administration of the store, she is 
searched both personally and as to her residence 
without recourse being had to the regular police. 



"When her house is searched, all new goods are piti- 
lessly confiscated. 

"Then the culprit is compelled to pay over a certain 
sum of money, which is determined by her wealth and 
social condition, to a fund devoted to the poor. This 
fine ranges from 100 to 10,000 francs. 

"On the other hand, if the culprit makes no con- 
fession and persists in densring the charge, she is 
handed over to the regular police. 

"The number of persons afflicted with kleptomania 
is beyond all belief. Put down those who reside in the 
department of the Seine alone at 100,000 and you will 
considerably fall short of the truth. Every class is 
represented. 

"In the case of women, impunity gives them assur- 
ance. For every single thief who steals un- 
der the stress of necessity, you will find a 
hundred who suffer no need whatever. We 
arrest one workingwoman for every hundred so- 
ciety ladies, and, in almost every instance, we arrest 
the workingwoman at Christmas time for stealing 
some little toy for her baby. It is true, of course, that 
the workingwoman has less time to be dishonest, and 
has fewer temptations. Servants out of place commit 
numeroiis thefts. But where we arrest ten domestics, 
we capture a hundred governesses, who, curiously 
enough, are especially addicted to stealing gloves. 

"You would be petrified to see the records of the 
Grand Bazaar, in which are carefully registered the 
names and addresses of women of good family and 
high social standing who have been compelled to tear- 
fully enroll their confessions among those of prosti- 
tutes and professional shoplifters I In the case of the 
latter, the records include a photograph of the thief. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SHOPLIFTEES.— (Continued). 



"One of the strangest things about shoplifting is that 
many of its professors are in a sense monomaniacs 
who go in for 'collecting' one special line of articles. 
One accumulates nut-crackers, another corkscrews, a 
third cuffs and collars, a fourth pepper-casters, a fifth 
spirit lamps, and so on. Very frequently the klepto- 
maniacs have no earthly use for the goods they steal. 

"Poverty is seldom pleaded as an excuse, and the 
woman who is addicted to shoplifting is. as a rule, a 
gay and festive creature who enjoys life to the utter- 
most. Only one woman in a thousand steals a garment 
for her child. 

"Just as most public men yearn to be the owners of 
decorations, most fashionable women crave laces, 
silks and diamonds. If they are homely they want to 
be attractive, and if they are pretty they want to have 
their charms expressed in the height of fashion. It is 
a law of feminine existence. Poor or rich, they are all 
equally possessed by the same cupidity. 

"Stores in which novelties are sold are a paradise for 
these women. The attractions they see on everj' side 
are absolutely irresistible, and they make no effort to 
restrain themselves. 

"The woman who steals deliberately and with calcu- 
lation is not a kleptomaniac— she is, simpl.v, a thief. 

"Fashionable milliners, game-dealers and confec- 
tioners are well up in the way of this class of ciistomer. 



They provide a remedy by posting one of the clerks at 
the door, who asks the lady as she goes out whether 
she hasn't forgotten something. In this delicate way 
the price of a missing box of candies or some other 
trifle is usiially recovered. 

"There is a certain Madame de F.— a lady of the high- 
est society— whose pilferings are all known to the 
police. Eight days ago she 'collared' a pate, defoie gran, 
worth 40 francs ($8), in a store where she had just paid 
a very large bill. 

"It seemed a terrible thing to suspect so prominent 
a lady— in whose drawing rooms the leaders of Parisian 
society constantly commingle. 

"She has horses and carriages. Her husband occu- 
pies a distinguished position and is universally re- 
spected and esteemed. She is rery rich and far above 
the seductions of coquetry and the pressure of need. 

"It was, however, by no means the first time she 
yielded to temptation, and a good many dealers in 
delicacies are well acquainted with her 'weakness.' " 

"It is the fashion, nowadays, to plead insanity as a 
defence for almost every variety of crime, and the 
most recent outcome of this theory is the statement 
that pregnancy, which works certain mental changes 
in some women, must be considered a mitigating cir- 
cumstance. 

"For example, the other day there occurred a curi- 



30 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



ous lUuBtration of this, The widow of an engineer of 
the department of canals and bridges met with what 
Sairah Bernhardt calls 'a little accident' two years after 
the death of her husband. Unable any longer to con- 
ceal the consequences of her error, she made some 
excuse or another and came to Paris in search of a 
midwife. 

"Caught in the act of pilfering fronj a big dry goods 
store, she was arrested and searched. About twenty 
articles of the most trifling value were taken from her. 
They were discovered in her lodgings, piled in great 
disorder in the bottom of a wardrobe. 

"Now, this woman was most cleai'l.v irresponsible. 
She had come to Paris to escape the results of a mis- 
step, and she committed others much less natural, 
not in any degree excusable, and which, under jiidicial 
prosecution, would entail the greatest and vilest dis- 
grace on herself and family. 

"The double offense was more than she could stand 
charged with— and she comniitted suicide. 

"I once saw a pickpocket sixty-seven years of age, 
acquitted in a police coui-t on the preposterous plea 
that when she was in an interesting condition she was 
not responsiole for her acts. 

"Pei'haps the credit given to this extraordinary ex- 
cuse in behalf of a woman sixty-seven j^ears old, was 
due to the fact that she had retained, with a fee of 
3,000f rancs ($600), one of the leaders of the Paris bar. 

"In every instance "kleptomania" shows itself to the 
greatest advantage in the big stores. It has grown so 
common and so general that it really seems to be con- 
tagious. If we go on excusing it and treating it as a 
mental infirmity instead of a criminal habit, we shall 
have to establish separate asylums for victims of the 
malady. 

"We are now in one of the largest establishments in 
Paris. Look down from this gallery, if j'ou please, on 
that seething, jostling, elbowing tide of humanity of 
which heads form the waves. 

"You will notice that the male sex is altogether in 
the minority. 

"Watch that man, carelessly dressed and negligent 
of his appearance, with the polka-dotted necktie. He 
is quite alone. What is he in search of,? The air round 
him is charged with womanliness, if I may coin an 
expi'ession. He is borne hither and thither like a cork 
on a stream. Something gets in the way of the moving 
mass of women. They stop for an instant. The man 
makes prodigious efforts to free himself from contact 
■with the crowd. He succeeds. The way is made 
clear for him. But it is evidently not liberty 
of which he is in search. In ])lace of profit- 
ing by his escapo from the crowd, he plunges 
into it once more. See the smile of balmy content- 
ment with which he resigns himself to being buffeted 
and jostled and borne this way and that way by the 
pressure of women. Watch him, with open nostrils, 
drinking in the odor of the femininity in which he is 
enveloped. 

" He is an erotic crank. He delights in the accidental 
and thoughless contacts of the moment as a fish de- 
lights in its native element. 

" Such a monomaniac was Monsietir X., whose arrest 
must stUl be fresh in your mind. 

" These erotic cranks who revel in imperceptible 
contact with women, itnder the cover of which they 
occasionally take liberties, are astonishingly numerous. 
There are as many of them as there are pickijockets, 
and one class is often mistaken for the other. 



" It is not an easy subject to treat or discuss. Medical 
men, I believe, have classified it. 

"Every day in some of the big stores of Paris j-oung 
and pretty women complain of the gross and indecent 
familiarities to which they are subjected in a crowd by 
men who are apparently respectable gentlemen. Most 
of them are between forty and fifty years of age. They 
dress plainly and in many instances their apparel is 
faded and threadbare. They attract no attention by 
their appearance, and are most systematic in the per- 
formances of which they are guilty. 

"There is still another class whom we call 'destruc- 
tive cranks." These monomaniacs love to carry scissors 
and cut pieces off the clothing of the women they en- 
counter. A good many of them make collections of 
the snippings they accumulate. To each they pin a 
card on which you may read the date, the name of the 
store and a brief sketch of the woman thus despoiled. 

"You have no idea of the damage caused by 'destruc- 
tive cranks.' They prefer, as a rule, establishments 
frequented by the most richly dressed women in Paris. 

"Next to 'destructive cranks' come, in importance, 
the 'hair-cutters.' I know half a dozen of these fel- 
lows who devote themselves to cutting off the braids of 
young girls about ten or twelve years old. The ex- 
cuses they offer when arrested are evidently mere 
lunatic special pleading. 

" 'I can't help it. It is an irresistible mania with me. 
I never think of the child herself . It is her beautiful 
hair which attracts me and makes me commit the 
follj'. I see it— and I mast possess it.' 

"Besides these 'cranks' I have on my list the collec- 
tors of handkerchiefs. The professional thief scorns a 
handkerchief and goes every time for the pocketbook. 
On the other hand, the amateur 'crank' disdains the 
pocketbook and aims for the handkerchief. 

"Stealing handkerchiefs from young women is a 
regular business. At the last universal exposition, a 
tailor, after three successive arrests, was sentenced 
to six months' imprisonment. His first two captures 
did not have any reformatory influence on him. In his 
room were found no less than three hundred hand- 
kerchiefs embroidered with various initials. 

"When one of these fellows 'snatches' a handker- 
chief he passes it to his lips and revels in the perfume 
just as a drunkard revels in the odor of liquor. 

"It is a curious fact that the women who are thus ill- 
treated are, as a rule, very loth to make any complaints. 
It is, of course, very dif&cult for a decent and respect- 
able female to distinguish between accidental contact 
with people in a crowd and the insulting demonstra- 
tions of erotic cranks. When there is no mistaking the 
nature of the familiarities which are inflicted on them, 
they blush and get out of the way as fast as possible, 
rather than occasion scandal by making a scene. 

"I am sorry to say that while this is the rule with the 
majority of women, there are a few who rather like to 
be insulted, and who frequent the stores with the hope 
that some man will be rude enough to ill-behave. 

Just at this moment the electric bell sounded, 

"I know what that means. The Countess de B. has, 
as usual, filched something from the notion counter. 
She has been arrested and will, as a matter of course 
and withovit the least resistance, pay 500 francs ($100) to 
the charity fund." 

"How old is this noble kleptomaniac ? " 

"About sixty. She is immensely rich, and nothing 
but meanness makes her a thief. We need waste no 
sympathy on her. 




MANILLA'S BOUDOIE. 



PARIS UKVEILED. 



CHAPTER X. 



COMMERCIAL BOHEMIA. 



" We have at last ebcaped into the fresh air out of one 
of the infernos which Dante forgot to describe. What 
a relief it is to emerge out of that rank and close and 
fetid atmosphere. 

"Now that we have treated our lungs to the refresh- 
ing sensation of out-doors, let iis look around and scan 
the scene. 

"On every side of us you see the parasites of the 
sidewalk— the merchants and hucksters of the gutters. 

"There, for instance, is Memeche, whom we last saw 
stretched out on the flagstones of the Rue des Nois 
Portes. She could not have made a long stay in the 
hospital this time, and there she is selling, in curious 
contrast to her own reckless and vicious habits, little 
memorandum books in which to keep household ac- 
counts. As soon as she has made a handful of pennies 
by this, off she will go to spend every sou of it with 
Old Father Spectacles again. 

"All round her are men who sell toy balloons, letter 
paper and envelopes, shoe laces, toothpicks, canes and 
umbrellas. 

"Watch. A policeman orders them to keep moving. 
Memeche opens her mouth and shows her teeth at 
him. It may be a sign of amiability and it may be a 
hint that she would like to bite him. 

"A little further along you see fellows who peddle 
pomades and soaps and other things of the sort. 

"Street criers, hawkers, card and circular distribu- 
tors—all look upon the public streets as their private 
property. 

"Look at that filthy, ragged fellow all in tatters, who 
is scratching his back against a friendly lamp post. 
He opens his moutjj everj' once in a while to howl out, 
'Here you are! The latest big scandal in high life! 
Rich, rare and spicy! The fullest particulars!" 

"Thus are the youth of both sexes cheaply and easily 
kept informed of aU the vice and wickedness rampant 
in Paris. 

"Oiitside the grammar schools and colleges and 
boarding schools you will find these picture dealers 
carrying round photographs of actresses in the garb of 
Eve, and books and poems, the onlj' characteristic of 
which is their incredible obscenity. 

• 'One of the principal articles dealt in by these scoun- 
drels are transparent cards which, to reveal theirinde- 
cencies, must be held up before the light. 

"Another part of this neighborhood is taken up by 
scoundrels who deal in pinchbeck jewelry and watches, 
with the whispered pretence that they are stolen goods 
which cannot be sold in stores. 

"All these minor rogues form a steadily increasing 
host which propogates itself and multiplies like mag- 
gots in a carcass. Their tireless industry in wrong- 
doing illustrates anew and over and over again the 
great maxim of Darwin— 'The struggle for life.' 

"The grand army of vice is spread broadcast every- 
where and under all conceivable conditions. It is a 
rising tide which is constantly mounting higher and 
higher, and which will finally engulf us unless we 
can discover some means of combatting and suppress- 
ing it. 

"The first city ordinance levelled at professional va- 



grants, vagabonds and outlaws was issued over two 
hundred years ago. They were driven out of their old 
retreat, the Court of Miracles, which the ancient 
chroniclers describe in 1684 as follows: 

" 'There were always to be found real or bogus suf- 
ferers and cripples showing their wounds and scars 
and maimed limbs, beggars plying their trade, thieves 
concocting fresh robberies or dividing the plunder of 
old ones, and a hideous prostitution which flourished 
in broad daylight, to the great shame and dishonor of 
the capital of a great kingdom.' 

"It is not only near the big stores that you find the 
pickets and outposts of the grand army of crime. The 
financial quarters of the city swarm with them. The 
Stock Exchange is surrounded by flocks of clever 
criminals, just as a barrel of sugar is flocked to by mil- 
lions of flies. 

"The theatres have their own special hangers-on- 
peddlers of programmes and carriage-door openers— 
who make no bones of seizing your watch or y9ur fan 
or your opera glasses, if you don't keep a very bright 
look out. 

"The ticket speculator is a variety of rascal whom we 
have constantly tried to put down, but who survives 
the hostile attentions of the police and utterly refuses 
to be wiped out of existence. 

"In 1875 M. Leon Renault gave strict orders that the 
sale of unauthorized tickets by speculators should be 
stopped. The hunt for offenders was kept up for ten 
days, and at the end of that time the police headquar- 
ters prison was full. Some of the culprits had as 
much as 500 or 1,000 francs on their persons, which 
made it impossible for the authorities to hold them as 
vagabonds. 

"Then appeared in the Figaro, the Evenement and the 
Gaulois, a mosx interesting letter from a theatrical 
official. It reads as follows: 
" ' Monsieur Prefect: 

" 'I have the honor to inform you that the press has 
for some time been calling attention to a series of dis- 
graceful frauds perpetrated on the sidewalks of 
theatres, especially when a play has achieved a marked 
success. 

"'Every theatre in Paris has two contractors for 
tickets. One represents the management and the box- 
office ; the other attends to the interests of the author. 

"'But, in addition to these regular official ticket 
dealers, there is a large number of individuals— men 
utterly withoiit character or responsibility — who, 
profiting by the credulitj' of the public, sell at extrava- 
gant pricesjihe most worthless seats in the house by 
misrepresenting their location and quality. 

" ' The simplest plan whereby to meet and crush this 
despicable robbery, and to raise a new fund for chari- 
table purposes, is to imitate England and Germany, 
where ticket-sellers are licensed by the authorities, 
and correspondingly taxed. 

" "Licensed dealers in tickets could employ other per- 
sons to actually sell for them, but it should be pro- 
vided that when an employee sold tickets he should at 
the same time give the customer a card bearing the 
pame and number of the licensed dealer in whose ser- 



32 



PARTS ITNVEILED. 



vice he sold, so that any infraction of the law or false 
pretence might be traced up and duly punished as in 
the case of cabmen. 

" 'The annual tax for a license should be 500 to 1,000 
francs for one theatre, double the amount for two, and 
BO on. 

" 'This measure would give the State over 50.000 francs 
a year and would regulate trade without creating a 
monopoly. 

" 'I sincerely hope, Monsieiir Prefect, that you. will 
immediately take these suggestions into consideration. 
" 'E. Havez. 
" 'Chief of the Staff of the Theatre des Varietes.' 

"Now that we have arrived at a church, just cast 
your eye around and see all the beggars who swarm in 
its neighborhood. You observe hunchbacks, blind 
men, scarred and ulcerated wretches, and women with 
children who look in the last gasps of starvation. 

"There may be a very few genuine cases of mis- 
fortune among them. But they constitute the min- 
ority. The greater number are rascals, male and 
female, who devote all their energies to theft and 
swindling. They are a crowd of loafers, bummers, 
drunkards and other scum. 

"In the summer time these vagabonds sleep on the 
slopes of the f ortitications and on the banks of the 
Beine. In winter they manage to survive the cold by 
taking refuge in unfinished houses. During the day 
they hang round barrack gates and hotel back en- 
trances for food. Early in the afternoon they hunt up 
quarters for themselves in the public squares and 
parks. 

"At nine o'clock this morning, in the garden of the 
Louvre, no less than twenty-eight vagabonds were ar- 
rested for sprawling on the benches. Among them 
were a couple of lunatics from the Bicetre. 

"Begging has become an industry and the false beg- 
gar is the real thief. 

"Our race courses, in addition to the pickpockets, 
who are their special and haoitual vermin, have agen- 
cies for robbery all their own. The bookmakers form 
a large and rascally element. Some of them form a 
syndicate which buys up a lot of horses and runs them 
in the names of mythical owners— the result of each 
race being deliberately planned and arranged before- 
band. 

"The profits of siich roguery are immense and can be 
calculated on every time, for they know in advance the 
horse who is going to win. 



"At the present moment an investigation is being 
made into a case where there is reason to believe that 
a well-known and highly-respected stable has let out 
its name to cover operations of this kind. 

"It is a curioiis thing that want never spurs the real 
thief to commit a crime. Children don't begin by 
stealing bi-ead or cake. Their first plunder is a knife, 
or a cigar-holder or some similar trinket. 

"Eatables and drinkables are usually stolen not to 
satisfy hunger and thirst, but to gratify gluttony. Men 
steal wines and liquors. Women steal confectionery. 

"The criminal statistics published each year by the 
Ministry of Justice permit us to accurately follow tlie 
movement of public morality. The inferences set 
forth are simply lamentabj^e, and go to show that ig- 
norance is not the parent of crime. The provinces, 
which are remarkable for their poverty and lack of 
education, are also remarkable for their freedom from 
criminals. Robberies are scarcely known, and of the 
most trifling character when they do occur. 

"It is a contrary rule in the great cities, where educa- 
tion is widely diffused and a high order of intelligence 
exists. 

"In Paris, the intellectual flower of the country, vice 
and crime in every phase, form and degree, prosper 
and grow, while the police remains stationary. The 
development of wickedness and the ingenuity with 
which it finds me^ins to express itself are truly ap- 
palling. 

" Twenty years ago the thieves were men of middle 
age, cowardly, shrinking and unskillful. They hid 
under cover all day, and only came out to perpetrate 
their evil deeds at night. 

""To-day there are hundreds of pickpockets— and very 
skillful pickpockets— who are not over 12 years of age. 
At 15 they become burglars and bank robbers, and at 
20 they are ripe for murder. 

" The criminals of Paris are no longer afraid of day- 
light. They actually prefer to operate in crowded 
thoroughfares in the glare of the siin. 

"Take the murders of the present period. Observe 
how much more frequent as \vell as how much more 
scientific they have become. 

"Robberies are thought out beforehand with all the 
carefulness and calculation of an engineering experi- 
ment. And when grand schemes are put into execu- 
tion, they are carried out with a thoroughness and a 
resolution to which it is hard to deny a kind of admira- 
tion. 




WORKING THE PICKPOCKET EACKET. 



PARIS UNVEILED. 



33 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE BLACK BAND. 



"Professional thieves know the establishments where 
• they can meet and reside in absolute security and use 
them as regular boarding houses. 

"Beer saloons, hotels, restaurants— all are regularly 
'booted' among the archives and memoranda of trav- 
eling crooks. They give each other points and, by 
means of conventional signs indicate to each other the 
character of these various resorts— distinguishing for 
example between places where they can be served with 
drinks and those where they can obtain eatables as 
well. 

"Kefuges of this kind are indicated according to their 
Importance and convenience by a light sketch repre- 
senting a locomotive, a boat, an omnibus, a street car 
or a cab. 

"These signs leave nothing to be desired in the way 
of exactness. I have seen some which went so far as to 
designate the price of drinks. 

"The proprietors of siich resorts are well acquainted 
with the true character of their customers, whom 
they favor in every possible waj^, and conceal by in- 
genious subterfuges from the pursuit of the police. 

"All these places are constructed with especial ref- 
erence for their use by criminals. Among other con- 
veniences, they have several means of exit through 
which closely-hunted crooks can rapidly and easily 
make their escape. 

"A Prefect of Police who really wants to keep up 
with the movements of criminals in Paris, ought to be 
thoroughly advised of what takes place there night 
and day. He should be wise enough and shrewd 
enough not to trust too implicitly to the information 
fiirnished by his agents, and by personal scrutiny and 
inspection ought to correct the frequently inaccurate 
and therefore useless reports made by his subordi- 
nates on the state of the public morals. 

"The den, or perhaps I ought to call it the tavern, 
which we are just entering is situated not very far 
from the opera. It stands near the Rue Faubourg- 
Mont Martre, and it serves as an asylum for several 
varieties of criminals. Although they know each other 
well, they make it a point while stopping here never 
to recognize one another. 

"The predecessor of the big, handsome blonde fel- 
low who sits at the desk was a German from Bei'lin. 
He had for a favorite customer, Jane Glay, a wonder- 
ftilly beautiful girl of 25 years, with eyes of childish 
innocence, who was clever enough in 1874 to escape 
from the prison of St. Lazare made up in the disguise 
of a Sister of Charity. 

"She was one of the most skillful memoers of a gang 
of pickpockets, who were under the protection and 
control of a fellow, who, under the pretext of render- 
ing him political services, became the intimate friend 
of the manager of the establishment. 

"This band of thieves, well-known as they were in 
London, made this place their refuge in exile. 

"The political agent, who was arrested and sentenced 
with the rest when a raid was made on the gang, died 
recently in London in a very mysterious manner. 

"This, then, is an important den?" remarked the 
Prefect, 



" Very important, and one of its most curious fea- 
tures is that it is patronized by a Senator and a Dep- 
uty." 

"That is a very serious statement to make." 

" Serious, it is true, but a statement which I ought 
to make to you as Prefect of Police, Monsieur. But it 
ought not to surprise you, seeing that I have already 
pointed out to you a licensed house of ill-fame which 
is the property of one of the most prominent function- 
aries of the President's ofB.ce." 

"Perhaps he inherited it. It is not always easy to 
make a change in property when it comes to you in 
the shape of a legacy." 

' ' Very true. But in this particular instance the heir, 
as soon as he got absolute control of the property re- 
tained the tenant. At the same time he resolved to cut 
down the infamous profits of the latter, so he raised 
her rent. 

"In this place foreigners always register themselves 
as bookmakers, and Frenchmen always put themselves 
down as commercial travelers. The habitues, as you 
see, without being very swell or distinguished looking, 
have a very decent and respectable appearance. They 
expend reasonably large amounts on their meals and 
refreshments. Just see. While we are content with 
a modest filet at the next table they are eating roast 
venison." 

"Isn't the venison season closed ?" 

"Certainly. And it has been closed for some time. 
But that doesn't prevent its being served to whoever 
orders it in this house. Nearly all the eatables here, 
like the cooks and the waiters, are of foreign origin. 
One fellow who serves tis is a Swiss. Drop twenty 
francs ($4) into his hands and order without the least 
hesitation its equivalent in tobacco, cigars, playing 
cards or matches— all smuggled— and as you make your 
exit the contraband goods you purchase will be 
dropped into your pocket or slipped under'your arm." 

"Do they ever get caught ?" 

"Frequently; but they pay their fines without de- 
fense or hesitation." 

"How do they obtain these contraband articles ?" 

"From secret companies and associations which 
trade in foreign countries. They forward to their 
accomplices packages hidden in goods which pay duty. 
In this manner, last year, so say the statistics, no less 
than a million playing cards were smuggled into 
France. 

"Our country Is fairly inundated with contraband 
tobacco and cigars, and the ingenuity of the smug- 
glers, who seem to strike a new device each day, has 
already succeeded in diminishing the receipts of the 
Treasury to a considerable, not to say alarming, ex- 
tent. 

"The Parisian accomplices of these secret organiza- 
tions are known as the Black Band. There are some of 
them seated at table clear down the other end of the 
room on our right. 

"There are usually twenty of them, and they make 
so many combinations and so many changes of ap- 
pearance that the law finds it impossible as a rule to 
put its hand on them. 



PAjRIS UNYEILEI). 



"Usually well educated and adroit, with no real pro- 
fession and belongins; to no recognized social class, 
they form, without any formality or actual organiza- 
tion, a nameless society which takes all sorts of forms 
and embarks in all sorts of enterprises. 

"The members, who are united by a common inter- 
est, are faithful to each other, and are never under any 
circumstances guilty of treachery to one another. 

"They cook up letters of credit, negotiate loans at 
usurious rates of interest, discount commercial paper 
backed by insolent rascals, who get from five to twenty 
francs for their signatures. They also make a living 
bj' 'bilking' manufacturers who are foolish enough to 
let them have goods on credit. 

"These free-masonic crooks— for their order is as 
well 'tiled' as Masonry itself— get through a vast deal 
of work every day. 

"Some of them devote themselves exclusively to 
blackmail, and many a family has been afflicted with 
dishonor, even suicide, at their hands. 

"The working classes have a faint idea what they eat. 
But they are absolutely ignorant of the nature of the 
various fluids which they drink. As a rule, their bev- 
erages are nameless poisons fraught with the most dan- 
gerous conseqiiences to life and health. There is 
nothing of the gi'ape in their wines, and their brandy is 
simply a simialative chemical product. 

"Thanks to the diffusion of intelligence the working 
people understand why official raids are made in their 
behalf on the cook-shops, the restaurants, dairies, gro- 
ceries, wine shops and confectioners of the metropolis. 
They include, in the "Black Band" dishonest butchers 
and dealers in unwholesome meats and other viands. 
In like manner do they categorize peddlers and haw- 
kers who sell their merchandise with false weights and 
measures. 

"Middle-class people call members of the 'Black 



Baud' those tradesmen who corrupt their servants with 
commissions and presents." 

"Is there no such thing as honesty in trade 1" in- 
quired the Prefect. 

"Certainly there is. Only an honest tradesman, Uke 
a virtuous woman, is never talked about." 

"It is a pity," said the Prefect, "that the great dis- 
coveries of science, while they have contributed to the 
happiness and welfare of man, have also contributed 
to his dangers and injuries. Progress in chemistry, 
for example, has not merely helped the arts and in- 
creased human comfort. It has made the work of the 
adulterator of food easy and safe, and, worst of all. , 
profitable. Honest trade has to suffer, and a premium 
is put upon commercial rascality and fraud. So far 
as I am concerned, I shall leave nothing undone to put 
an end to tricks and devices in commerce. Have we 
many such establishments as this headquarters of the 
•Black Band ?' " 

"Too many for the good of Paris. Luckily, however, 
none of them are as prosperous and profitable as this. 

"The proprietor of a well-known beer shop recently 
told a prosecuting officer that no house of the kind 
could exist upon the business of strictly honest and 
square people. If it were not for 'crooks' and prosti- 
tutes he would have to put up his shutters. 

"This place, towards 1 o'clock in the morning, under- 
goes a very decided change. Crayfish and onion soup 
are to be seen on all the various tables which are 
crowded by 'lovers' and their girls to whom the Rue 
du Faubourg-Montmatre serves as a rallying point. 

At this moment a young man stopped the Chief and 
handed him a small p.acket, remarking : 

"You left this on the counter, sir." 

"That was a smart waiter. He made up his mind to 
identify me as a 'runner' for smiigglers so he puts 
on me this bundle of contraband segars. It compro- 
mises me and it reassures the smugglers sitting inside. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE "SWELL" SHOPLIFTER AND THREE PRECOCIOUS LITTLE SINNERS. 



' Among the professions which anxiously follow the 
progress of chemistry, the perfumers are entitled to 
a front rank. 

"For example, here we are at the window of a per- 
fumer who supplies the prettiest actresses in Paris 
with their articles of personal luxury. 

"A recent official analysis has shown that in place of 
containing the extracts of beneficent and wholesome 
plants, his little flasks are filled with poisonous and 
injurious drugs, which only differ in degree of nox- 
iousness. 

"Under pompous and large-sounding names, the va- 
rious powders with which women whiten their faces, 
shoulders and arms, are largely composed of lead. 

"Bottles of hair-dye, which are advertised as "war- 
ranted harmless" have for their basis sulphate of cop- 
per and cyanide of potassium. 

"Cosmetics for the face are made into the form of 
creams and pomades, and a chemical analysis reveals 
the fact that they are largely made up of mercury and 
carbonate of lead. 

"As to the specifics guaranteed to make the hair grow 
on the baldest heads, they are as a rule compounded 



of as many and as loathsome ingredients as the hell- 
broth mixed by the witches in Blacbeth. 

"Speaking of trade, the police of the Tenth Dis- 
trict complain that owing to the immense and grow- 
ing crowd of street hawkers, accidents are increasing 
on the Rues Faubourg St. Denis, Saint Martin and 
Temple. All the various faubourgs are invaded at all 
seasons of the year bj'" these peripatetic tradespeople 
who often take up the middle of the street two rows 
deep. This obstructs the movements of vehicles and 
makes crossings ver.v dangerous. 

"The sidewalks are encumbered and blockaded by 
women who sell all sorts of merchandise out of bask- 
ets. In fact some of our principal thoroughfares have 
degenerated into open air markets and when the day 
is over, are strewn ankle deep with the remnants of 
fish and vegetables. 

"At certain hours- say between 11 and 6, it is almost 
impossible to cross these streets. 

"The storekeepers naturally complain of this great 
nuisance, which caiises them a good deal of injury. 
T'hey certainly have abundant reason to complain of 
the indifference of the authorities. 




HE WAS A MASHER. 




AN IMPBISONED CONVICT RELEASED BY A DESPEEATE SWEETHEART. 



PABTS UNVEILED. 



"In order to keep on good terms witn the members 
of the municipal council, the Prefecture of Police 
treats their favorites with a good deal of leniency. 
This mviltiplies the army of peddlers and hawkers, 
and they are not backward in showing their contempt 
for the officers, who are hampered by political consid- 
erations from interfering with them." 

"By the way,can you explain the mysterious fact that 
numerotis persons have recently fallen into the Canal 
St. Martin ? It is a subject into which I want immedi- 
ate iuciuirjr made." 

"Well, Monsieur le Prefect, the canal is uncovered, 
as you know, from the Temple bridge to the basin of 
la Villette. This uncovered portion is protected by 
safety-chains. These identical chains are themselves 
the cause of the very accidents they are put there to 
prevent. 

"Instead of being kept tight and breast high, as they 
should, in the middle of each there is a sunken curve 
which almost reaches the ground. On dark days, in 
fog or a snow-storm, the careless passer-by trips his 
foot in the curve and falls head over heels into the bed 
of the canal. 

"The poverty of the lighting of the neighborhood 
and the black, suffocating water of the canal, insure 
him a speedy and hopeless doom. 

"When the body is recovered there are no marks of 
violence on it, and the case is unhesitatingly pro- 
nounced one of suicide. 

"The sum total of human beings who come to their 
death in this manner every year is something fright- 
ful. The chains have been tip for fifty years, and yet 
it has never occurred to the authorities to make them 
tight and secure." 

"Which are the most turbulent districts of Paris ?" 

"The most turbulent and excitable, politically, are 
the Twelfth and Nineteenth. The foreign element pre- 
dominates in them and they are filled with Germans, 
Italians, Belgians and others, who compete with our 
native workmen and thereby occasion much ill-feeling 
and a good deal of trouble." 

"One moment. I see the detective you nickname 
Humming-Bird. He and his partner seem to be 
watched and followed by somebody. What are they 
up to?" 

"I will show you. We are now close to the Ambigu 
theatre. At No. 4 Boulevard St. Martin is a house hav- 
ing an exit on the Kiie de Bondy. We will cross over. 
You, Porthos and Humming-Bird go ahead and await 
us at the chief police station of the Tenth District. 

"You shall see. Monsieur le Prefect, what the spy 
is doing and who he is. I think it is ourselves whom 
he is shadowing." 

The spy turned out to be the proprietor of a house of 
ill-fame, who professed to have been employed by one 
of the sub-chiefs of police to keep watch of the Prefect. 

That functionary addressed his "shadow" in no 
measured terms. 

"You say you were employed to see that no in- 
jury happened to me. You have evidently kept close 
to me for I see on your notes a statement of what I had 
for dinner. Clear out of this. It is an outrage to use 
such a creature as you in any sort of service. The sub- 
chief who assigned this fellow to the task of keeping 
an eye on me shall receive his dismissal this evening." 

"You can hardly blame him, Monsieur le Prefect," 
replied the Chief of Detectives. "You forgot this morn- 
ing to inform your personal headquarters staff with 
your intentions. So, to show his zeal and concern 
for your welware, the sub-chief, according to custom, 
selected an agent, not on the force, to follow us from 
place to place and keep us under supervision." 



The two officers tlien took advantage of being in the 
Police Station to glance into the room in which ar- 
rested women are detained. 

On a bench allotted to the prisoners were seated two 
ladies. The one, a handsome blonde of thirty-five, 
with features of remarkable delicacy, spoke French 
with an excellent accent , and comported herself with 
the utmost dignity. She was no less a personage than 
Mme. Marie Nasimoff, daughter of Prince Viazimski 
and Countess Tolstoi. The lady is therefore a bona 
fide Kussian princess. She was divorced from her 
husband seven years ago 'by a special nkase of the 
Czar. The gentleman had been in the habit of knock- 
ing her about, and had actually been condemned at 
Nice for his shortcomings toward his spouse to three 
months' imprisonment. The Czar's ukase settled the 
matter in a way satisfactory to all parties, and thence- 
forth Mme. de Nasimoff, free as air, was able to enjoy 
life without any apprehension of blows and bruises. 
She shone like a star at Nice, delighting her numerous 
friends and acquaintances with her concerts and re- 
ceptions. Her voice was much admired, and in her in- 
tervals of repose from social engagements she climbed 
the Mount of Parnassus and contributed the 
results of her draughts from the Pierian spring 
to the local newspapers. One of her poems was en- 
titled "Le Kegard," and treated of the "Timid Virgin" 
and of "Chaste Pleasure." Another was headed "Con- 
fidenze a Demain," while "Deception" was the title of 
a third. Melancholy seems to have tuned Mme. de 
Nasimoff's lyre. Besides these inspired works, the 
minions of the law had unearthed a whole budget of 
correspondence with "crowned heads," which, it is 
to be feared, have since been shaking rather omin- 
ously. 

The other tenant of the prisoners' bench was Mile. 
Nadedja de Fomine. She is 36 years old, the daughter 
of the late Gen. Demetri, of the Czar's Guards, and to 
this day she receives from her imperial Majesty a year- 
ly allowance of £120. Moreover, she writes for some of 
the Muscovite papers, acts as interpreter occasionally, 
and when she got into the scrape which launched her 
in the police court was playing the further role of 
dame de compagnie to Mme. Marie de Nasimoff. What 
had brought these Bussian ladies of high degree to 
this unpleasant predicament? A visit to the big 
Louvre shops on July 15, the day after the national 
fete and the grand review at Longchamps, They had 
been watched closely by two inspectors. One of them 
stated that the ladies had bought a few things, but had 
helped themselves to many more. He warned his 
comrade, who arrested the Princess in the Rue de Ri- 
voli, while he took her companion in custodj'. When 
they were searched a quantity of articles for which 
they had not paid were found on their persons. They 
formed a miscellaneous collection, including scissors, 
cigarette holders, pencils, cigarette papers, cheap 
watches and chains, soap, card cases, and toilet 
powder. 

"You see," said the Chief of Detectives, "that what I 
told you of the high social condition of a good many 
shoplifters was not by any means a fiction." 

As they sallied forth they encountered two commis- 
sionaires, who came hurrying for a stretcher in which 
to carry to the Lariboisiere Hospital a dry-goods 
porter who had sustained a serious, perhaps fatal, fall. 

"He slipped upon a piece of orange peel," said a 
policeman, "and fell with great violence on the side- 
walk. We took him to a drug store on the Bue Chateat 
d' Eau, and sent for a surgeon who said it was a bad 
fracture of the skull which, considering the man's 
age, is sure to prove fatal." 



FABIS UNVEILED. 



"Street accidents diie to careleesness," said the Chief 
of Detectives, "are constantly increasing, and some- 
thing ought to be done about it. Butchers and truck- 
men, especially, are given to driving at the top of their 
speed through the streets. This afternoon a butcher 
boy. hurrying from the slaughter-houses of laVillette, 
dashed down hill in the faubourg St. Martin, near the 
Church of St. Laurent, and ran over and killed a child 
eight years old. 

"I happened to be passing, and saw the poor little 
creature stretched lifeless on the pavement. In his 
right hand he clutched some money, and in his left 
was a can crushed out of shape. The milk which had 
formed the contents of the can was poured all over 
the pavement and mingled with the blood which 
gushed from his shattered skull." 

"Poor little creature. It must have been a horrible 
sight." 

At this moment the two functionaries encountered a 
police officer conveying three little girls to the station 
house. 



"What is the case ?" inquired the Prefect. 

"These are three sisters," replied the officer, "whom 
their mother sent out begging on the pretence of sell- 
ing flowers. Not wishing to return home, they strag- 
gled down to the Valmy quay and were about to jump 
in, when an officer, who had been watching them, took 
them into custody." 

"What will be done with them ?" asked the Prefect, 
in a tone of commisseration. 

"Their statements will be reduced to writing and 
embodied in a complaint against their mother and her 
lover, who will be arrested for impelling minor chil- 
dren to vice and debauchery. The woman has often 
forced the children, with blows, to go out riding in 
close carriages with old men." 

"What are the ages ot the little ones ?" 

"Eight, eleven and thirteen. Their mother is a 
Pole, and sells flowers, which her lover steals from the 
cemeteries." 

"A nice couple 1" cried the astonished and disgusted 
Prefect. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



VICE AND DEBAUCHERY AS THEY PKOSPEK IN THE FEENCH METROPOLIS. 



"The Rue Maubree (badly cleaned in old French) 
goes back in antiquity to the Xlllth century. 

"It is a narrow street, which makes locomotion diffi- 
cult and laborious, and it traverses a quarter of Paris 
which is composed of old houses tottering to their 
fall. These rookeries are inhabited by peddlers and 
hawkers, and the hard-working creatures who make 
the little French notions which are famous all over the 
world. 

"A large proportion of the inhabitants of this dis- 
trict are honest working people of both sexes. But 
they are none the less often afflicted by the contact 
of women of ill-fame and their disreputable 'lovers ' 

"Be good enough. Monsieur le Prefect, to examine 
these dark and suspicious alleys and entrys, and their 
black walls and their still blacker staircases, on every 
landing of whicli is an overflowing leaden tank to hold 
the slops of each floor. 

"The very air is loaded with pestilence. 

"On the ground floor the stores are occupied by 
dealers in drinks, cheap restaurants and cook-shops. 
Here you will find plenty of places where the broken 
victuals given to beggars are bought of them and 
cooked over again for sale. 

"The entrances are nearly all lit up by lanterns over- 
head, which emit a feeble and quivering light. In 
every instance each lantern is inscribed "Lodging 
House.' 

"If you want to see debauchery, vice and honest la- 
bor all mingled through their common want and mis- 
ery under the same roof, you had better explore this 
establishment, whose windows look out on a narrow, 
noisome court, which exhales ttie most revolting and 
nauseous odors. 

"Lodgings here, by the night, cost from 15 to 30 cen- 
times {lYi to 15 cents). Such a thing as credit is utterly 
unknown. The motto of the place is 'No casb, no 
couch.' 

"The apartments consist of foul dens hardly large 
enough to turn around in, and reeliing with the most 



fearful stenches. Each contains for furniture a rough 
wide wooden frame, which barely suggests the form 
of a bed. This is covered with a straw mattress en- 
cased in filthy old rags. Alongside the bed is a wooden 
stool, which serves for a washstand and a dressing- 
case. A pitcher of water— without any basin— sup- 
plies meagre facilities for washing, and a lump of clay 
with a hole in the middle of it does duty for a candle- 
stick. 

"These dens are the lodgings of pimps and thieves 
on the first floor, of prostitutes and street walkers on 
the second, and elsewhere to the creatures who supply 
licensed liouses with their music. 

"On the firstfloor some of the apartments are dormi- 
tories containing from five to ten long chests filled 
with straw which are accepted as the equivalents of 
beds. All that one has to do to make them is to turn 
them over with a stable fork. 

" Here we are in one of these dormitories which is 
full for the night. Did you ever look upon a more as- 
tonishing, a more repulsive scene ? 

" Look around, by favor of the obscure and dingy 
lantern 1 

" Every one of the lodgers is stripped to his skin, and 
the heap of rags which represents the clothes they 
have taken off to go to bed, emits a stench to which 
nothing could ever do justice. 

"Thanks to the fact that the only window in the 
place has all its panes broken, the foul air occasion- 
ally leaKs out and the fresh occasionally takes its 
place. 

" Among these fellows you will find waiters out of a 
job, ragpickers, streetsweepers, paviors, men who 
work two days a week and loaf five, beggars, pimps, 
thieves and swindlers. " 

"Do the police of ten visit places of this character ?" 
inquired the Pi-efect. 

"Very seldom. Never, you may say, unless they 
have some specific object in view. The last raid 
Wiaich took place yeeulted in the capture of three bur- 




THEY AKE A HAKD LOT. 



PARTS UNVEILED. 



glare and two prostitutes wlio were their accomplices 
in a big robbery." 

"Wiio is that fellow in threadbare clothes whom we 
just passed and who nodded to j'on ?" 

"That is the drunken lawyer's clerk whom we saw 
this evening m the Eed House. When he can't find 
quarters here he sleeps in some police station. 

"Now let us explore the Rue Fillea-Dieu, which is a 
prolongation of the Rue de Venise. It has a history of 
its own, and is full of traditions. In some parts it is 
so narrow that, by extending both arms, you can feel 
the wall on either side. 

"Most of the houses are out of plumb, and the stores 
on the jiround floor are used by peddlers and hawkers 
to keep their push-carts in. 

"The rest are inhabited hy prostitutes, who paj' from 
three to five francs a day for the use of them. 

"AU these women are over forty j^ears of age, and, 
without exception, are drunkards of the lowest de- 
scription. 

"They are closely watched by the police-of-morals, 
who regard them as esijecially dangerous to young 
shop-girls and apprentices, who swai-m round here 
in the Rues Beaubourg, Simon Le Franc and Quincam- 
poix. 

"Here we are at the entrance of the Rue Filles-Dieu, 
for the demolition of which the residents of the Quar- 
tier Bonne Nouvelle have been petitioning for over 
twentj' years. 

"With great justice, they demand that daylight and 
fresh air shall be admitted into the hot-bed of moral 
and physical infection. 

"The decent working population which inhabits the 
Cour des Miracle naturally shrinks from exposing its 
children to the contamination which thrives in this 
street. 

"The explanation of the choice of this locality by the 
lowest set of street-walkers is lost in the mists of au- 
tiquitj^. According to the historians, as far back as the 
time of St. Louis there were houses of retreat here for 
reijentant Magdalenes. 

"The first and oldest of these asylums was that of 
the Filles-Dieu (Daughters of God), and, according to 
the usage of the day, criminals on their way to the 
place of execution at Blontfaucon were obliged to 
make a station before the cross of the Filles-Dicn. 

"The Sisters gave the poor wretches bread and wine. 
and the common people called the repast 'the God- 
crust.' 

"Time, revolution and progress have all conspired 
to make great changes here. 

"The convents have disappeared, and in their place 
are installed ostentatious resorts of vice and infamy. 

"This street, which is longer than the Rues des 
Anglais, Manbree and de Venise, is like a huge drain or 
sewer. It is very narrow and shut in between houses 
Avith cracked and filthy walls, which are alwaj^s sweat- 
ing with a hideous and Indescribable moisture. One 
would suppose it was always raining here, so incessant 



is the emptying of slops out of the iipper windows, 
where you constantly see women washing off the straw 
mattresses which have been slept upon by drunkards. 

"The sun shines only on the roofs of these houses, 
and occasionally steals into their garrets. No matter 
how hard he may try, he can never reach the damp 
and stenchful courts. 

"Horrible and hideous as is the exterior of one of 
these places, it is nothing compared with the scenes 
inside— the crumbling walls, the stinking stairways, the 
slipper.y floors, the unmentionable insects. 

"This is the home of prostitution in its vilest and 
most disreputable form. 

"Look round on these hags. See them, in spite of the 
police orders, standing in their doorwa.vs soliciting for 
patronage with nods and winks and other gestures. 

"Utterly lawless aud defiant as they are, they know 
who we are the moment thej^ see us. There are three 
of us— the regular number of a police round. Besides, 
a good mans' of them know me personally. 

" Listen to the varioiis cues and signals: 

•"OheUgene!' Ohe Zehe!' 

" That is a prostitiite warning her 'lover' that there is 
danger lurking in the air. 

"There goes 'Ugene' running out of that saloon. He 
is a pretty sight, isn't he, with his greasy, tattered 
trousers, his flat cap and his tawdry embroidered 
slijjpers. 

"This den which we are about to enter. No. 29, is a 
fair sample of the licensed houses of this abominable 
street. 

" Observe how old and battered it is. 

"The ground floor is a sitting-room, or parlor, for 
the girls and the landlady. In this cramped and dis- 
mal den there are three pine tables covered with cloths 
so greasy and filthy that it makes one's stomach rise to 
look at them. 

One of these tables is placed crossways and faces the 
door. 

"It serves as a desk or ofiice. 

"In one corner is a tottering stove on which the meals 
are cooked. The fire is out and on the top of it, on a 
piece of greasy paper, are a long sausage, a ha,lf empty 
bottle of wine and a dirty tumbler. 

"From the low, smoke-grimed roof of this apartment 
hangs a kerosene lamp. The light, directed by a paper 
shade, falls on a big box. painted red, on which is a 
foul straw mattress. An old woman is stretched out 
upon it, snoring, with her huge dirty-gray curls and 
her toothless mouth wide open, she is hideous to be- 
hold. 

"The landlady, an enormous woman, is sick in bed. 
Her husband mounts guard at the desk and oversees 
the business of the den. 

"He is a small, insignificant creature, sixty years of 
age. Thin and dry as parchment, he presents a comi- 
cal appearance as he sits at the receipt of custom in 
his shirtsleeves, wearing the regulation silk cap of ■* 
rowdy. 



PAEIS UNVEILED. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PROSTITUTES. -THE EXECUTION OF PEANZTNI. 



In front of this horrible and weird-looking old man 
is a huge blackboard on -which he keeps, with a piece 
of chalk, the accounts of the den. For here nobody 
has any credit and every "transaction" between one 
of the inmates and a customer is recorded on the 
blackboard. 

About two o'clock in the morning each girl settles 
with the old man and pays over to him that share of 
her "earnings" which belong to the house. 

This den consists of three floors which are connected 
by a bare wooden stair case, filthy and slippery with 
all manner of uncleanliness, and which is barely three 
feet in width. 

There are six rooms, two on every floor. One is re- 
served for the special use of the mistress of the house. 
The others are at the service of the inmates. Their 
furniture is represented by a miserable painted wood- 
en bed without pillows, and the sheets of which are 
only changed once a month, a miserable little pine 
table and a cracked pitcher of water. 

"The inmates of the place," remarked the Chief of 
Detectives, "are just about what you would expect, 
Monsieur le Prefect. They are qaite in keeping with 
the furniture and fixtures. They are all played-out, 
brandy-sodden, bloated and diseased. The youngest 
of the lot is over forty years of age. After having 
spent their lives in the grossest debauchery, they con- 
sider themselves lucky to be able to finish their miser- 
able existences in this manner. 

"They enjoy a certain amount of liberty, and for 
their meals frequent the neighboring wine shops, 
where for a few pennies thej'' get a bit of beef, bread 
or cheese. Tliere, too, they find among the drunken 
hangers-on customers, whom they entertain for a 
trifle." 

"What will become of all those prostitutes when 
the Rue des Filles Dieu is cleaned out?" inquired the 
Prefect. 

"The younger ones will rejoin their com- 
rades of the Rue de Venice. The others will be 
found in hospitals, workhouses and asylums. Evei-y 
evening they gather in swarms in a Jittle alley which 
opens in the Rues Sainte-Foy and Saint Spire, the pass- 
age du Caire and the Rue des Filles Dieu, whence they 
issue, at nightfall, like vermin to solicit customers. 

"These crowds are always noisj' and vociferous and 

_ their disturbances last for hours. Sometimes their 

disputes become out-and-out rows and riots in which 

the combatants black each other's eyes and pull each 

other's hair out in handfulls. 

"Nobody separates them and unless the police inter- 
fere they close the rows themselves as they begin 
them." 

The two functionaries dropped into one of the neigh- 
boring wine shops. 

"What a crowd of women," exclaimed the Prefect. 
"Some of them are by no means bad looking. There's 
an exception, though, that woman who is eating craw- 
fish over there. She has lost her entire nose." 

"That is Irma, the Bricktop. Her lover cut her nose 
off by striking her in the face with a broken bottle," 

"Look at the boldness of these women— bareheaded 



all of them, some with their sleeves rolled up, crowd- 
ing round that young man. They grab him by the 
arm and he actually has to fight with ferocity to get rid 
of them." 

"The youngest are the worst. They hunt their male 
victims with more pertinacity than the old beldames. 
Some of them are not fifteen years of age. 

"Every evening, just as to-night, our most attractive 
boulevards are overrun by prostitutes and their lovers, 
by hawkers of transparent playing cards, pedlers of 
questionable drugs and an army of abominable riff- 
raff. The women, as well as the men, think nothing 
of exchanging the most foul-mouthed language with 
people who repel their offers. 

"Sprawling on benches j'ou will see thieves, vaga- 
bonds and tramps of every variety — creatures without 
homes and without occupations— who fill the air with 
their indecencies. 

"You cannot sit down in a cafe without being pes- 
tered by beggars and mendicants of all kinds, sorts, 
sizes and ages. Many of tiiem are children— poor little 
ragged, bare-footed wretches, who beseech a penny 
while sticking under your nose a bundle of pencils or 
some other trifle. 

"So great is the demoralization of the criminal 
classes, that even children are taking to suicide. Only 
this evening three young creatures, in their misery 
and despair, were about to thi-ow themselves into the 
canal when arrested. 

"The veiT atmosphere is loaded with moral corrup- 
tion and decay." 

The Prefect suddenly put his hand on his subordi- 
nate's shoulder. 

"It is nearly daybreak, " he said, "and at dawn, as 
you know, Pranzini pays the penalty of his crime." 

"The crowd of debased rufiians which await the 
execution," replied the Chief, "will better than any- 
thing else illustrate my remarks on the depravity of 
modern Paris. Let us go and look at it." 

On their way to the gloomy prison in front of which 
the notorious criminal was about to expiate his hideous 
acts, the Chief said: 

"There are people who actually doubt that this 
wretch is the onlj' assassin involved in tlie case. 

"Their theoiT is that he was onb' an accomplice, the 
chief criminal walking about unmolested. M. Fond- 
villars. formerly of Lc Temps, made an extraordinary 
statement. M. Fondvillars had interviews with Mile. 
Sabatier and with Maitre Demange and another well- 
known member of the Paris bar. Tiie latter asserts 
his conviction that the mysterious dark man seen in 
Pranzini's company the day after the crime was the 
real author of the murders, and is living in Paris near 
Odeon. This man was formerly his client, and is 
known to the police as a dissipated character and ad- 
venturer. 

"On making further inquiries it was ascertained that 
the man in question is a little Austrian Jew of a dried- 
up, Greek appearance, slight, forbidding, with black 
and very arched eyebrows and name not unlike Geiss- 
ler. M, Fgnclvillars, in tiie written communication, 
said: 



FAFilS UNVEILED. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PROSTITUTES.-THE EXECUTION OF PBANZINI. 



In front of this horrible and weird-lookinK old man 
is a huge blackboard on which he keeps, with a piece 
of chalk, the accounts of the den. For here nobody 
has any credit and every "transaction" between one 
of the inmates and a customer is recorded on the 
blackboard. 

About two o'clock in the morning each girl settles 
with the old man and pays over to him that share of 
her "earnings" which belong to the house. 

This den consists of three floors which are connected 
by a bare wooden stair case, filthy and slippery with 
all manner of uncleanliness, and which is barely three 
feet in width. 

There are six rooms, two on every floor. One is re- 
served for the special use of the mistress of the house. 
The others are at the service of the inmates. Their 
furniture is represented by a miserable painted wood- 
en bed without pillows, and the sheets of which are 
only changed once a month, a miserable little pine 
table and a cracked pitcher of water. 

"The inmates of the place," remarked the Chief of 
Detectives, "are just about what you would expect. 
Monsieur le Pi'efect. They are qaite in keeping with 
the furniture and fixtures. They are all played-out, 
brandy-sodden, bloated and diseased- The youngest 
of the lot is over forty years of age. After liaving 
spent their lives in the grossest debauchery, thej' con- 
sider themselves lucky to be able to finish their miser- 
able existences in this manner. 

"They enjo.v a certain amount of liberty, and for 
their meals frequent the neighboring wine shops, 
where for a few pennies thej'- get a bit of beef, bread 
or cheese. Tliere, too, they find among the drunken 
hangers-on customers, whom thej' entertain for a 
trifle." 

"What will become of all those prostitutes when 
the Eue des Filles Dieu is cleaned out?" inquired the 
Prefect. 

"The younger ones will rejoin their com- 
rades of the Rue de Venice. The others will be 
found in hospitals, workhouses and asylums. Evwy 
evening they gather in swarms in a little alley which 
opens in the Rues Sainte-Foy and Saint Spire, the pass- 
age du Caire and the Rue des Filles-Dieu, whence they 
issue, at nightfall, like vermin to solicit customers. 

"These crowds are always noisy and vociferous and 
their disturbances last for hours. Sometimes their 
disputes become out-and-out rows and riots in which 
the combatants black each other's eyes and pull each 
other's hair out in handfulls. 

"Nobody separates them and unless the police inter- 
fere they close the rows themselves as they begin 
them." 

The two functionaries dropped into one of the neigh- 
boring wine shops. 

"What a crowd of women," exclaimed the Prefect. 
"Some of them are by no means bad looking. There's 
an exception, though, that woman who is eating craw- 
fish over there. She has lost her entire nose." 

"That is Irma, the Bricktop. Her lover cut her nose 
off by striking her in the face with a broken bottle," 

"Look at the boldness of these women— bareheaded 



all of them, some with their sleeves rolled up, crowd- 
ing round that young man. They grab him by the 
arm and he actually has to fight with ferocity to get rid 
of them." 

"The youngest are the worst. They hunt their male 
victims with more pertinacity than the old beldames. 
Some of them are not fifteen years of age. 

"Every evening, just as to-night, our most attractive 
boulevards are overrun by prostitutes and their lovers, 
by hawkers of transparent playing cards, pedlers of 
questionable drugs and an army of abominable riff- 
raff. The women, as well as the men, think nothing 
of exchanging the most foul-mouthed language with 
people who repel their offers. 

"Sprawling on benches you will see thieves, vaga- 
bonds and tramps of every variety— creatures without 
homes and without occupations— who fill the air with 
their indecencies. 

"You cannot sit down in a cafe without being pes- 
tered by beggars and mendicants of all kinds, sorts, 
sizes and ages. Many of them are children— poor little 
ragged, bare-footed wretches, who beseech a penny 
while sticking under your nose a bundle of pencils or 
some other trifle. 

"So great is the demoralization of the criminal 
classes, tliat even children are taking to suicide. Only 
this evening three j'oung creatures, in their misery 
and despair, were about to throw themselves into the 
canal when arrested. 

■'The verj' atmosphere is loaded with moral corrup- 
tion and decay." 

The Prefect suddenly put his hand on his subordi- 
nate's shoulder. 

"It is nearly daybreak." he said, "and at dawn, as 
you know, Pranzini pays the penalty of his crime." 

"The crowd of debased rufiians which await the 
execution," rexilied the Chief, "will better than any- 
thing else illustrate my remarks on the depravity of 
modern Paris. Let us go and look at it." 

On their way to the gloomy prison in front of which 
the notorious criminal was about to expiate his hideous 
acts, the Chief said: 

"There are people who actually doubt that this 
wretch is the onlj' assassin involved in the case. 

"Their theory is that he was onb' an accomplice, the 
chief criminal walking about unmolested. M. Fond- 
villars, formerly of Le Temps, made an extraoi'dinary 
statement. M. Fondvillars had interviews with Mile. 
Sabatier and with Maitre Demange and another well- 
known member of the Paris bar. The latter asserts 
his conviction that the mysterious dark man seen in 
Pranzini's companj^ the day after the crime was the 
real author of the murders, and is living in Paris near 
Odeon. This man was formerly his client, and is 
known to the police as a dissipated character and ad- 
venturer. 

"On making further inquiries it was ascertained that 
the man in question is a little Austrian Jew of a dried- 
up, Greek appearance, sliglit, forbidding, with black 
and very arched ej^ebrows and name not unlike Geiss- 
ler. M, FonclviUare, in his written communication, 
said: 



PARIS UNVEILEi). 



•'Proceedings were actually instituted against this 
man, but weje stopped suddenly on the intervention of 
au influential Creole lady." 

When the two oflicials reached the prison the crowd 
seething and foaming about the gates of La Roquette 
were in such an unsatisfied mood that unless some- 
body had been guillotined there would have been 
riots. Voices were shouting in chorus: 

C'est Pranziui-zini-zini 
C'est Pranzini qu'il nous faut. 
Oh! oh! oh! oh! 

This outlandish chant, echoed and re-echoed by 
wine-soaked throats, nightly aroused Pranzini from 
his slumbers. His keepers told him that it was 
only an emeute, and the wretched man went to sleep 
again. 

The crowd since midnight had grown and multiplied, 
and there were not less than twenty thousand people 
gathered about. All the riffraff and scum of Belleville, 
all the disreputable women and idlers of the Boulevard 
Montmartre, all the morbid foreigners at present so- 
iourning in Paris, and all the journalists whom duty 
compels to be there, gathered about the approaches to 
the grim, frowning prison on this dark and solemn 
night in the Place de la Koquete. 

The feeble glimmer of a dozen gas lamps shed a dis- 
mal light upon the crowd pacing up and down in front 
of the prison. The trees which dot the place were 
filled with jeering gamins, who defy the injunctions of 
the police to "come down out of that." In carriages 
there were hundreds of cocottes in gay toilets, drinking 
champagne and smoking cigarettes. Here and there a 
weary tramp was curled up and asleep against the wall 
or on a bench. How anyone can sleep at all in such a 
tumult is strange indeed, and yet long habit enables 
scores of them to do it. Every now and then a fresh 
gang of blackguards arrived swearing, smoking and 
shouting, or a carriage drew up, loaded with passen- 
gers relatively respectable, and is greeted with the de- 
risive chorus of: 

Voila Pranzini qui arrive! 

To while awas' the time the crowd made occasional 
excursions around the corner to a refreshment shed in 
the Rue de la Folic Regnault— a predestined name, 
surely. When M. Deibler, the executioner, and his 
dread assistants were preparing the guillotine during 
the evening, long after the regulation police hours, the 
wine shops in the neighborhood of the terrible ma- 
chine, were crowded with customers. Once or twice 
the "executor of lofty deeds," as they call the execu- 
tioner here, and his underlings stole in to refresh 
themselves with a drop of drink, but very few of the 
idlers recognized them, and those who did, of course, 
failed to get any informatioo out of them. 



New couplets had been added to the lugubrious song 
already mentioned: 

C'est sa tete, sa tete, sa tete, 

C'est sa tete qu'il nous faut! 

Oh! oh! oh! 

Shortly after midnight the rattle of hoofs and clank- 
ing of sabres announced the arrival of mounted gen- 
darmes and ^rardes de paix. In a twinkling the place 
before the prison was cleared of all but a few journal- 
ists and the police agents. The crowd, driven back on 
all sides, formed again at either end of the Place, 
shouting and singing. Then came a long pause. About 
three o'clock the rumble of wheels was heard in the 
direction of the Kue de la Folie Regnault. 

A few minutes afterward a cart came jolting over the 
paving stones toward the entrance to the little avenue 
facing the prison gates. There it halted and the exe- 
cutioner's assistants jumped off. Then for half an 
hour a sound of hammering rose above the songs and 
catcalls. "Monsieur de Paris," and his men were pre- 
paring the "woods of justice" for the tragic business 
before them. As the hammering ceased, a cab drove 
up to the Place. The prison chaplain. Abbe Fanrc, 
stepped out with the procuveur de la republique. and 
hurrying past the guillotine disappeared in the laison 
door. The morning opened damp and lowering, Init 
it seemed to have little depressing effect ujion the 
crowd, which waited until the fatal knife full with a 
patience worthy of a better cause. 

Pranzini was awakened out of a sound sleep at 4:45 
o'clock by the jailers. Father Beanquesne, chapla u 
of La Koquette, entered the prisoner's coll and ex- 
horted him to be courageous. Pranzini replied th;it he 
had no fear, but regretted that the only favor he had 
asked— -that of permission to see his mother— had been 
refused. He reiterated his profession of innocence, 
and refused to make confession to the priest, saying: 
"Father, you do your duty; I will do mine." While 
being dressed for the block he declared he was glad 
that his life was to be taken, as he preferred deatli to 
penal servitude for life. He reproached the Chief of 
Police for having called, as Pranzini alleged, false wit- 
nesses against him during his trial. When he had 
been conducted to the scaffold he appeared to be quite 
calm and displayed considerable assurance. He kissed 
the crucifix presented to him by the priest, but he re- 
fused to kiss the priest when the latter proffered the 
farewell embrace. Pranzini was at this moment skill- 
fully grasped and suddenly thrown upon the guillo- 
tine. Its great knife fell and the murderer's head was 
severed from his body. The head was at once placed 
in a wagon and carried at a gallop to the Ivey ceme- 
tery, where it was buried, after the regular funeral 
ceremonj' had been performed over it. The Faculty 
of Medicine claimed the body and it was surrendered 
to them. 



'MiHi wi 




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